F 



THE FIRST TWO YEARS OP KANSAS, 



OR 



WHERE, WHEN AND HOW THE MISSOURI BUSHWHACKER, 

THE MISSOURI TRAIN AND BANK ROBBER, AND T^OSE 

WHO STOLE THEMSELVES RICH IN THE NAME OF 

LIBERTY, WERE SIRED AND REARED. 



AN ADDRESS 



BY 

GEORGE W. MARTIN, 

SECRETARY OF THE KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 
DELIVERED AT 

PAWNEE VILLAGE, REPUBLIC COUNTY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1906, 
THE ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FLAG IN 
KANSAS; ALSO, BEFORE THE FIFTY-SIXERS AT 
LAWRENCE, SEPTEMBER 14, 1907, THE FIFTY- 
FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF THE INVASION 
OF THE 2700; ALSO, AT OLD SETTLERS' 
REUNIONS AT HIGHLAND STATION, 
OSAGE CITY, EMPORIA, ALMA, 
AND LINCOLN CENTER. 



STATE PRINTING OFFICE, 
TOPEKA, 1907. 




Glass ^J^JS^ 

Book iJ^3i .. 



THE FIRST TWO YEARS OF KANSAS, 

OR 

WHERE, WHEN AND HOW THE MISSOURI BUSHWHACKER, 

THE MISSOURI TRAIN AND BANK ROBBER, AND THOSE 

WHO STOLE THEMSELVES RICH IN THE NAME OF 

LIBERTY, WERE SIRED AND REARED. 



AN ADDRESS 

GEORGE w/mARTIN, 

SECRETARY OF THE KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 
DELIVERED AT 

PAWNEE VILLAGE, REPUBLIC COUNTY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1906, 
THE ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FLAG IN 
KANSAS; ALSO, BEFORE THE FIFTY-SIXERS AT 
LAWRENCE, SEPTEMBER 14, 1907, THE FIFTY- 
FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF THE INVASION 
OF THE 2700; ALSO, AT OLD SETTLERS' 
REUNIONS AT HIGHLAND STATION, 
OSAGE CITY, EMPORIA, ALMA, 
AND LINCOLN CENTER. 



STATE PRINTING OFFICE, 
TOPEKA, 1907. 






one 



THE FIRST TWO YEARS OF KANSAS. 



[This 13 a lost or forgotten chapter of Kansas history, and I d\g it up and put it on record in 
justice to the state and her first settlers. We have put in our time abusing James H. Lane, 
Charles Robinson and John Bro^vn. until this generatioT has lost the bsginning. while over the 
line they have published histories, biographies and novels, and painted great pictures, with 
vaudevilles on the road, lauding to the skies the Quantrills, the Youngers and the Jameses. I 
will now tell you who sowed to the wind— all of us know all about the whirlwind.] 

\ RECENT dispatch (June 14, 1906) from Washington, concerning the 
'^~*- passage of the bill creating the state of Oklahoma, says it closed a 
contest for statehood not equaled since the days of the Missouri compromise. 

There can be no comparison between the peaceful, reasonable, clever 
contest for Oklahoma and the wild and vicious fight growing out of the re- 
peal of the Missouri compromise, covering as it did years of passionate talk 
and murderous action, culminating in the birth of Kansas and the awful 
civil war. How many of our people have any conception of the terror and 
outrage which welcomed the pioneers of fifty-two years ago to the happy 
and peaceful prairies of this most delightful commonwealth? A few may 
have a vague notion that in the early days there was some trouble here 
about the slavery question ; and more may know, because of the persistent 
and exclusive talk about it, that John Brown killed some pro-slavery people 
on Pottawatomie creek— an incident in a great conflict, which has been 
magnified until a myriad of outrages have been overshadowed and history 
to a great extent absolutely perverted. 

Kansas has been indulging in semicentennials now for three years. And 
from now on events worthy of such memory will multiply. A half a century 
ago incidents of momentous interest were happening almost weekly. From 
the spring of 1854 until the spring of 186.5— eleven years— violence covered 
the eastern two or three tiers of counties in Kansas, and heroism and self- 
sacrifice among the actors did much to impress succeeding generations. 
Then came peace and a period of reconstruction which will call for semicen- 
tennial observances fully as interesting as those suggested by the strife to 
establish our institutions. 

We have already celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the creation of 
the territory, and of the founding of Lawrence, Topeka, and Emporia. In 
1906 we celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the battle at Osawatomie and 
her defender, John Brown. And above all, we celebrated in September, 1906, 
in Republic county, the one-hundredth anniversary of the first appearance 
in Kansas of the banner which has brought us through so many troubles. 

To give you a proper and vivid view of the first two years of Kansas, I 
must go to that place of first historical resort— the newspapers. The news- 
paper may not always tell the truth, but it is a dead-sure reflex of the pas- 
sions and motives of men and of communities. No adequate account of 
those days could be given without using some of the spoken and written 
words of the actors; and while such language may seem dreadful to-day, we 
must consider the surroundings and the institutions which provoked it, and 



4 The First Two Years of Kansas. 

the years of agitation leading up to the events which occurred in the coun- 
ties on both sides of the Missouri-Kansas state line. There was nothing the 
matter with Kansas, and Missouri, as a whole, was not to blame for her share 
in the trouble, the issue having divided the people of the entire country since 
the days of Jefferson. 

In 1820 the slavery question had been arbitrarily settled by the establish- 
ment of a line north of which human slavery could not exist. But there 
was a growing conscience in the North on the subject, and the restlessness 
of the South had been increased by the admission of California as a free 
state at the close of the Mexican war. At that time a schism had occurred 
among the Northern Democrats concerning the extension of slavery into the 
territory acquired from Mexico, which took form in a proposition advanced 
by David Wilmot, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, known as the "Wilmot 
proviso." This measure largely augmented the anti slavery feeling already 
existing, as it provided that slavery should not be extended into this new 
territory, Mexico having abolished slavery some twenty years before. 
Upon the principles of this proviso ten years later the Republican party was 
formed, and fourteen years later Abraham Lincoln was elected president. 
The outcome of the Missouri compromise, adopted in 1820, had in the interval 
made Kansas free soil. 

In the regular order of things, that part of the Indian Territory west of 
Iowa and Missouri, came up for statehood. The trouble was already here. 
The slavery question disrupted the Methodist church in 1845, and the Wyan- 
dotte Indians, who came west in 1S43, and who were all Methodists, pre- 
cipitated the strife into Kansas in 1846. As early as 1852, David R. Atchison 
on the stump argued in favor of the repeal of the Missouri compromise, the 
purpose being to remove the restrictions from the then Indian Territory. 
The South, long dissatisfied with the measure, welcomed this proposition.' 

December 13, 1852, Williard P. Hall, of Missouri, introduced in Congress 
a bill to create the Territory of Platte, embracing Kansas and Nebraska. 
February 2, 1853. William A. Richardson, of Illinois, reported another bill 
to create the Territory of Nebraska, including all this region. This bill 
failed, and on the 4th of December, Senator Augustus C. Dodge, of Iowa, 
introduced the measure again, January 23, 1854, Senator Douglas, from 
the committee on territories, reported a substitute creating the territories 
of Kansas and Nebraska, repealing the Missouri compromise, and suggest- 
ing the principle of squatter sovereignty. This bill passed and was signed 
by the President, May 30, 1854. It legalized human slavery north of lati- 
tude 36° 30', opening to that institution 500,000 square miles east of the 
Rocky Mountains, which had been shielded forever by the bargain forced on 
the North in the compromise of 1820. Fourteen senators and forty-four 
representatives from the North voted for the repeal. 

And so Kansas was opened to slavery, subject to "squatter sovereignty." 
that is, that the squatters had a right to pass on the subject— could have 
slavery if they wanted it. The purpose was clearly to force Kansas into the 

Note 1.— A Jackson. Miss., paper said. June 13. 1855: "The appointment of a governor of 
Kansas is an act of vast consequence to the South. It suggests to us at once the restoration of 
the equihbrium between ihe North and the South, lost in the admission of California— the exten- 
sion of Southern area, and Southern institutions— a return to the constitution and to its faithful 
administration." — Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 4. p. 206. 

" Kansas was the keysione of the arch of the Union. It was of vital importance not only to 
Missouri, but to each of the slave-holding states that it should come into the Union as a slave 
state. The admission of California had deprived us (the South) of the balance of power in the 
senate. Now was the time and this the occasion to restore it." — Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 6, p. 194. 



The First Two Years of Kansas. 5 

Union as a slave state. 2 And while this palpable purpose was working out 
in Congress, the sentiment in the North expressed in the Wilmot proviso 
was vigorously gathering for battle on the plains of Kansas. And so on the 
26th of April, 1854, the Emigrant Aid Company was incorporated by the 
Massachusetts legislature, with a capital stock of $5,000,000, "to assist emi- 
grants to settle in the West." The Glasgow (Missouri) Times, of June 22, 
1854, said: "A determined effort is to be made to introduce slavery into 
Kansas, while there is a geneial disposition to let Nebraska be free. "3 The 
Platte Argus said: "The abolitionists will probably not be interrupted if 
they settle north of the fortieth parallel of north latitude, but south of that 
line, and within Kansas territory, they need not set foot. It is decreed by 
the people who live adjacent that their institutions are to be established; 
and candor compels us to advise accordingly." And a meeting at Inde- 
pendence resolved: "That we, the South, be permitted peaceably to possess 
Kansas, while the North, on the same privilege, be permitted to possess 
Nebraska territory."^ And so it is evident that Kansas, pledged to free 
soil in 1820, was to be given away in the '50's through the very funny mis- 
nomer of "squatter sovereignty." 

Now, before we see how the sovereign squats acted, or how the prin- 
ciple was applied, I desire to say again we must keep in mind the conditions, 
surroundings, the life and teachings, and the passions of the hour. David 
R Atchison and Benjamin F. Stringfellow were the responsible leaders of 
the Southern element. David R. Atchison was a Kentuckian who settled in 
Clay county. Missouri, in 1830. He was a man of inflexible will and of great 
force of character, big-hearted, benevolent, and of convivial habits. Almost 
from the date of his settlement until his defeat for the United States senate 
in 1855, he was a leader in Missouri, and held many public positions. He 
was president of the senate on the openipg of Kansas to settlement, and in 
this position, his friends now say, he was President of the United States for 
one day. He said he was so fatigued from several days and nights of con- 
tinuous work that he slept during his entire term as President. The 4th of 
March, 1849, occurred on Sunday, and General Taylor was not sworn in 
until Monday noon. Atchison was undoubtedly the originator of the idea of 
the repeal of the Missouri compromise, and not Stephen A. Douglas. ^ At 
the beginning of the civil war he entered the Confederate army, but soon 
retired because of dissatisfaction with the management. After the war he 

Note 2.— The Lawrence RepuhHcan, edited by Timothy Dwight Thacher. December 17, 1857, 
on the Lecompton constitution : "Squatter sovereignty was always a humbug and always meant 
to be. It was a dust kicked up and thrown in the eyes of confiding . . . Northern Democrats 
to reconcile them to that act of treachery and fraud — the repeal of the Missouri compromise. 
The men who originated the Nebraska bill, and forced it through Congress, never meant that 
the pfople of Kansas should exclude slavery. On the contrary, those men meant to force slavery 
into Kansas. . . . They used the humbug of popular sovereignty as long as they needed it. 
but now they throw off the guise and Buchanan and his cabinet determine to force a pro-slavery 
constitution upon us at all hazards. For the sake of a few Southern nigger breeders and traders, 
the people of Kansas must be made slaves." 

Note 3.— Webb's Scrap-bnok, vol. 1, p. 41. 

Note 4. — Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 1, p. 43. 

Note 5. — Cincinnati Demorrnt. May 30. 18.55: "During the summer of 1852 our informant lis" 
tened to speeches from General Atch'son in which he repeatdly declared upon the stump, as he 
went from place to place, that he would work continuously to repeal the Missouri compromise 
line and that he would leave no stone unturned to that end ; that he would rather see Kansas 
sunk to the bottom of hell than that it should be a free state. With impassioned language, 
amounting to absolute rage, h" stirred up the people around him— nearly all of whom held slaves, 
few or many— to res'st the settlentient of K msas to th? knife, as a measure and event in which 
their ruin and the utter loss of their p'-oparty was involve 1" — Webb's Scrap-book. vol. 4, p. 111. 

Reverend Mr. Starr, a Presbyterian minister, who was driven away from Weston in the 
spring of 1855 because of his anti-slavery sentiments, addressed a public meeting in Rochester. 



6 The First Tiuo Years of Kansas. 

lived in retirement, a public-spirited and patriotic citizen. He died January 

26. 1886. Stringfellow early became a citizen of Kansas, and when the end 
came, squarely and honorably acknowledged defeat. I met him frequently 
as late as the '80's. He was a kindly gentleman of the old school, earnest 
and efficient in all things looking to the development of the state, an in- 
terested participant in the first Kansas railroad convention, held in 1860, and 
author of the appeal to Congress for railroad aid." He was a director in 
the Santa Fe Railroad Company for the years November 24, 1863, to July 

27, 1865, and May 16, 1878, to August 5, 1884. When slavery lost out he 
became a Republican. The ta k and actions of these men are to-day in- 
credible, and can only be accounted for by the general charge all free-soilers 
made the barbarism of slavery. Stringfellow died April 26, 1891. 

And yet, amid all the bitterness in the volumes before me, I find the fol- 
lowing from a writer in the St. Louis Democrat of September 12, 1855: "I 
asked General Stringfellow if he had any children. I shall never forget the 
sudden and almost terrible shadow in the expression of his face that this 
question produced. The conversation had begun about politics, and had been 
carried on very freely up to this point. My careless question, however, sud- 
denly changed his expression. Never in my life did I see a broken heart so 
vividly pictured on human face. His breast heaved ; the tears started in 
his eyes; he could hardly articulate. He answered by monosyllables and 
single words at a time. He told me he had lost four children last spring, 
within a few days of each other. As he described the death of his young 
son, at whose bedside he sat ten days without rest, he was often forced to 
stop to suppress his rising tears and sobs. To see a strong man so moved 
is the most terrible and affecting sight beneath the sun. It affected me 
greatly— even to tears— not as I saw it, for its intense expression of despair 
and grief paralyzed my own feelings, but as I recalled it in the solitude of 
my own chamber. 'That's what makes me desperate so often,' was the 
last remark he made in describing his domestic misfortunes. And as he 
said so I thought if the leaders of political parties knew each other's sor- 
rows, the hidden causes of political hate and revolutions would soon cease 
to be a mystery." ' 

In these pages I give the language used by my authorities in quotation 
marks, because it is history, and for it I humbly apologize. This language 
was used in public addresses and public prints, and so is a matter of record, 
and an attempt to soften it would interfere with the main purpose of this 
paper, and that is to show the spirit of the times, a condition which will ac- 

N. Y., June 1. 1855, in which he said: "The repeal of the Missouri compromise was agritated by 
Senator Atchison in Missouri three year-* before it was broached in Congress, and he had heard 
that senator denounce it and the North in stump speeches in Weston with the most unsparing 
invective." — Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 4. pp. 135. 136. 

At a sale of lots in Atchison. David R Atchison made a speech, in which he said : "Gentle- 
men, you make a damned fuss about Douglas— Douglas— but Douglas don't deserve the credit of 
this Nebraska bill. I toW Douglas to introduce it. I originated it. I got Pierce committed to it, 
and all the glory belongs to me. All the South went for it— all to a man but Bell and Houston, and 
who are they? Mere nobodies: nobody cares for them." This was published in the Parkville 
Luminary, but denied by the Platte Argus and Atchison's friends The young man who reported 
it maintained that it was a true report. Atchi.ton was called to account by a nephew of John 
Bell and he excused himself on the ground that he was in liquor at the time.— Webb's Scrap- 
book, vol. 4. p. 147. 

The Missouri compromise was first violated in 1837 by Thomas H. Benton, who had a bill 
passed that year changing the western boundary of Missouri northward from the mouth of the 
Kansas from the meridian line to the Missouri river. The counties of Platte. Buchanan. Andrew, 
Nodaway, Atchison and Holt were originally free-soil, but became the hotbed of pro-slaveryism. 

Note 6.- See Kan. Hist. Coll.. vol. 9. p. 476. 

Note 7.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 5, p. 159. 



The First Two Years of Kansas. 7 

count for the Quantrills, the Bill Andersons, the James boys, the Younprers, 
George Todd, Dick Yeager, and the Daltons, heroes of the border, whose 
worshipers are surely disappearing under the light of better days. This 
generation is entitled to know what the founders of Kansas were up against. 
And the world is entitled to know where, when and how the Missouri bush- 
whacker, the Missouri train and bank robber, and those who stole themselves 
rich in the name of liberty,^ were sired and reared. Without desiring to 
exaggerate what follows in this paper, I will say there was no yellow jour- 
nalism in those days. 

Now for the workings of squatter sovereignty. June 10, 1854, ten days 
after the opening of the territory, a number of Missourians met on the 
Kansas side, in Salt Creek valley, three miles from Fort Leavenworth, and 
organized the Squatters' Claim Association. They adopted rules to govern 
the settlement of the territory. « Here are three: 

'•(8) That we recognize the institution of slavery as already existing in 
this territory, and recommend slaveholders to introduce their property as 
early as possible, 

"(9) That we will afford no protection to abolitionists as settlers of Kan- 
sas territory, 

"(10) That a vigilance committee of thirteen be appointed to decide upon 
all disputes." 

And what was the definition of an abolitionist at that time? July 31, 

1855, at Westport, Benjamin F. Stringfellow said : "The idea of a National 

Democratic party in Kansas is ridiculous. Every National Democrat is an 

abolitionist in disguise; such a one might not steal a nigger himself, but 

would pat on the back those who do. Nine out of ten men in the world are 

abolitionists. >*• We want no more importations from Pennsylvania; we have 

Note 8.— This expression was made famous in a speech by Thomas Ewing, at Olathe, Kan., 
June 2o. 1863. On the 9th of June. 1863, General Ewing was placed in command of the district 
of the Border, with headquarters at Kansas City. The difference between conservatism and 
radicalism made a breach of exceeding bitterness, and to quote anything from those days is of 
use only in showing the bitterness. In the Olathe speech. Ewing said : "There are many men 
m Kansas who are stealing themselves rich in the name of liberty. . . . They arrogate to 
themselves and their sympathizers all the radical anti-slaveryism and genuine loyalty in Kansas. 
Under their aegis many of the worst men that ever vexed a civilized community have flocked 
and been protected." He said these men would not enlist because the administration was not 
radical enough to suit them, and he was determined they should enlist and come under military 
control. The Leavenworth Conservative accused Ewing of preferring to be a police officer in- 
stead of a great department commander determined on protecting Kansas from the raids of 
bushwhackers. Ewing was denounced for inefficiency, and the Wyandotte Gazette called atten- 
tion to numerous raids, murders and robberies preceding the Lawrence massacre. August 16, 
1863. the Leavenworth Conservative said : "The old free-state fight which we had in 1855-'56-'57 
has been transferred to Missouri, and it is waging there with a bitterness as terrible and glorious 
as when it reddened these new-born prairies with blood. The epithet 'bleeding' is no longer 
prefixed to Kansas. We have done with phlebotomy and benevolently yield the word to Mis- 
souri." August 21 the Lawrence raid came, and on August 25 Ewing issued the famous Order 
No. 11, depopulating the counties of Jackson. Cass, Bates, and part of Vernon. Ewing was on a 
visit at Leavenworth when Quantrill was in Lawrence "Stealing themselves rich in the name 
of Liberty" was rung on Ewing with great sarcasm and bitternpss. It was charged that Quan- 
trill said to Robert S. Stevens: " Ewing is in command of the district, but I run the machine." 
James H. Lane made a speech in Leavenworth in which he expressed the hope that the counties 
named in Ewing's Order No. 11 would be burned over so that there could be no place where a 
bushwhacker could be harbored. Ewing was a noble man— a victim of the bitterness and cussed- 
ness of war. General Order No. 11 was a righteous move ; it stopped the raids into Kansas, started 
in 1855. A biographer says: " He found the Missouri border full of guerrillas and the state full 
of robbers," a legitimate result of squatter sovereignty. In consequence of the very fierce as- 
sault made upon him by his political enemies in Kansas and by rebel sympathizers in Missouri, 
General Ewing asked a court of inquiry to investigate and report as to the efficiency and justice 
of his administration, but the President refused to order the court, and at the same time en'arged 
his command by the addition of all of Kansas north of the thirty-eighth parallel. At the time of 
his last visit westward, about 1890, at a reception given him at the Coates House, in Kansas City, 
he justified General Order No. 11, and said that under similar circumstances he would do it again. 
He was first chief justice of the supreme court of the state of Kansas. He died in New York. 
January 21, 1896, from injuries received in a street-car accident. 

Note 9. — Moire's History of Leavenworth County, p. 19. 

Note 10.— John Calhiun, bafore the law-and -order meeting at Leavenworth. November 15, 
1855 : " You yield and you have the most infernal government that ever cursed a land. I would 



8 The First Two Years of Kansas. 

enough of the Pennsylvania popular sovereignty men if this is the way they 
practice the doctrine. " '^ August 30, 1855. the first Kansas territorial legis- 
ture, elected by Missouri votes, referring to a proposition to form a National 
Democratic party in Kansas, declared, on motion of Dr. J. H. Stringfellow, 
"Therefore, be it resolved by the House of Representatives, the Council 
concurring therein, That it is the duty of the pro-slavery party, the Union 
loving men of Kansas territory, to know but one issue, slavery; and that 
any party making or attempting to make any other, is and should be held 
as an ally of abolitionism and disunionism."'^ 

Was this sentiment political buncombe, or was there any backing to it ? 
The Democratic Platform, a Missouri newspaper, in 1854 said: "We are in 
favor of making Kansas a slave state, if it should require half the citizens 
of Missouri, musket in hand, to emigrate there, and even sacrificing their 
lives in accomplishing so desirable an end." And the Western Champion 
responds: "Them's our sentiments." '3 July 11, 1854, t\\e Jackson Missia- 
sippian said: "Kansas is now a slave territory, and will be a slave state. 
There are already enough slave-owners interested in Kansas to whip out all 
the abolitionists who may dare to pollute the soil with their incendiary 
feet."'* The Platte County Self-defensive Association, an organization of 
some very live Missouri citizens, held a meeting at Westport, Mo., July 20, 
1854, and resolved, "First, That this association will, whenever called upon 
by any of the citizens of Kansas territory hold itself in readiness to go 
there to assist in removing any and all emigrants who go there under the 
auspices of the Northern Emigration Aid Societies." '^ 

If this is not sufficiently clear as to the meaning of squatter sovereignty, 
perhaps the following speech by Benjamin F. Stringfellow, at St. Joseph, 
March 26, 1855, as quoted by a correspondent of the New York Tribune,^" 
may aid in clearing any obtuseness : 

"I tell you to mark every scoundrel among you that is in the least tainted 
with free-soilism or aholitionism and exterminate him. Neither give nor 
take quarter from the damned rascals. 1 propose to mark them in this 
house, and on the present occasion, so you may crush them out. To those 
who have qualms of conscience as to violating laws, state or national, the 
crisis has arrived when such impositions must be disregarded, as your rights 
and property are in danger, and I advise one and all to enter every election 
district in Kansas, in defiance of Reeder and his vile myrmidons, and vote 
at the point of the bowie-knife and the revolver. Neither give or take quar- 
ter, as our cause demands it. It is enough that the slaveholding interest 
wills it. from which there is no appeal. What right has Governor Reeder to 
rule Missourians in Kansas? His proclamation and prescribed oath must be 
prohibited. '^ It is to your interest to do so. Mmd that slavery is estab- 
lished where it is not prohibited." 

rather be a painted slave over in Missouri, or a serf to the Czar of Russia, than have the aboli- 
tionists in power." The meeting- groaned and hissed Marcus J. Parrott, a Northern Democrat 
out of the meeting because he was a free-soil man. 

Note 11.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 5, p. 49. 

Note 12.— House Journal, 1855, p. 380. 

Note 13.-Webb"s Scrap-book, vol. 1, p. 44. 

Note 14.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 1, p. 70. 

Note 15.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 1, p. 112. 

Note 16.— Webb's Scrap-book. vol. 3, p. 113. 

Note 17.— Andrew H. Reeder, the first territorial governor, in his sworn testimony before . 
the congressional committee, 1856, says: "At the election of the 30th of March more than one- 
third of the election officers were, as I believe, pro-slavery men. Anticipating, however, an 
Invasion of illfgal voters from the state of Missouri. I was careful to appoint in most of the dis- 
tricts, especially in those contiguous to Missouri, two men of the free-state party and one of the 
pro-blavery patty. Notwithstanding all my efforts, however, at fair and impartial action, my 



The First Tivo Years of Kansas. 9 

David R. Atchison, United States senator and acting Vice-president of 
the United States, said, in Platte City: "If we cannot get Kansas by peace- 
ful means, we must take it at the point of the bayonet, if necessary." '» 

That everybody seemed to be onto the idea of squatter sovereignty ex- 
cept the free-soilers, read this advertisement in the Western Argus, March 
10, 1855, and signed "Nimrod Farley and J. M. G. Brown": "Election in 
Kansas— The Ferry that Never Stops. A report having got out that one of 
our boats had been carried off by the ice, we take the liberty of contradict- 
ing it. Ours is the only ferry that never stops. We keep two good boats, 
and when one can't rua the other can. All who wish to be in Kansas in 
time to vote, go to latan, and you will not be disappointed, for old Nim is 
always ready." ^^ 

Now if we are in doubt as to whether there may have been some fraud 
in this, the St. Louis Democrat, a Benton paper, assures us: "The upshot 
of the business is that the fraud by which the Missouri compromise was re- 
pealed required to be consummated by another fraud, and a man (Atchison) 
who made a tool of Douglas for the perpetration of the first fraud, telling 
him that if he didn't introduce a bill for that purpose that he would resign 
his position as president of the senate and introduce it himself, has at last 
found it necessary to resign as president of the senate in order to superin- 
tend the perpetration of the second fraud, "^o 

While all this was going on, so far at least, there were not enough free- 
soilers in the territory to show any symptoms of fright. The possibilities 
though grew more appalling with the days. The Kansas Pioneer, published 
at Kickapoo, April, 1855, said: "The Southern character is not made of 
material that can stand every insult offered by this God-forsaken class of 
men, and if the virgin soil of Kansas must be enriched and purified by 
American blood, we say. ' war to the knife, and knife to the hilt, and damned 
be he who first cries ' Hold, enough !' "^i The St. Louis Democrat thinks the 
people of Weston, Mo , "possessed of the same devils that drove the swine 
over the orecipice into the sea. How reasonable beings can be guilty of 
such reckless lawlessness, we cannot divine."-- The editor of the Richfield, 
Mo., Enterprise missed an issue of his paper, and apologized by saying that 
he was over in the territory of Kansas workinsf for the advancement of the 
pro-slavery cause. In his zeal he said: " We do not intend to make a threat, 

person and my life were continuously threatened from the month of November. 1854. . . . 
The election was held on the 30th of March, as ordered, and an invading- force from Missouri en- 
tered the territory for the purpose of voting, which, although it had been openly threatened, far 
exceeded my anticipations. About the time fixed as the return day for that election a majority 
of the persons returned as elected assembled at Shawnee Mission and Westport. and rema'ned 
several days, holding private caucuses at both places. I had frequent conversations with them, 
and they strenuously denied my right to go behind the returns made by the judges of the elec- 
tion, or investigate in any way the legality of the election. A committee called upon me and pre- 
sented a paper, signed by twenty-three or twenty-four of them, to the same effect. Threats of 
violence against my person and life were freely afloat in the community, and the same threats 
were reported to me as having been made by members elect in their private caucuses. In con- 
sequence of its being reported to me that a number of the members in their caucuses in their 
speeches had declared that they would take my life if I persisted in taking cognizance of the 
complaints made against the legality of the elections. I made arrangements to assemble a small 
number of friends for defense, and on the morning of the 6th of April I proceeded to announce 
my decision upon the returns. Upon the one sid j of the room were arrayed the members elect, 
nearly if not quite all armed, and on the other side about fourteen of my friends, who, with my- 
self, were also well armed."— Report of Committee on Kansas Affairs, 1856. pp. 935, 936. 

Note 18.- Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 6, p. 87. • 

Note 19.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 3, p. 95. 

Note 20.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 2, p. 174. 

Note 21.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 3, p. 194. 

Note 22.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 3, p. 256. 



10 The First Tivo Years of Kansas. 

but will say to the Eastern and Northern abolitionists and free-soilers, that 
we have in Missouri one hemp factory employed to make suitable ropes for 
hanging negro slaves, and by hell we will use them."23 

Under such generous, mild mannered and patriotic impulses, what were 
other people doing, and what sort of history followed? Free-soilers during 
the second year came in slowly, pro-slavery men more slowly. There were 
some people at work industriously in a material way, both free-soil and pro- 
slavery, but the nation, whose trouble it was, both North and South, lashed 
itself into a fury over the outcome in Kansas. Both sections engaged in the 
raising of money and men to carry on the battle, and their leaders wrote 
and spoke as vigorously as did the vanguard of slavery in Missouri, but 
with less brutality and profanity. ^-^ The free-soil leaders in Kansas devoted 
their energies to resisting the pro-slavery government, and were not con- 
spicuous for any violence. One writer said that amid all the brawling 
"You will find a Yankee, a Tennesseean, and a Missourian all cozily shel- 
tered in the same cabin, and living together as harmoniously as a prairie- 
dog, a rattlesnake, and an owl. They all seek to better their condition in 
life and to secure, if it be so they can, the little lordship of 160 acres of 
Mother Earth, whereon to propagate no matter what, but opinion least of 
all things. The Yankee (sharne on his education) has never heard of the 
famous Boston propaganda; the Tennesseean has barely 'hearntell' of Mr. 
Calhoun and the rights of the South; and the Missourian thinks the rights 
of the West will be amply vindicated if he can get his favorite quarter-sec- 
tion. "^^ This, however, need not be taken to indicate stupidity; because it 
is evident that all were aware of the significance of the fight that was on, 
but all were not violent or lawless, and there were free-state emigrants 
from the South and Missouri who were guileless enough to understand 
squatter sovereignty to mean the vote of the bona fide settler. 

But let us pursue chronologically, to some degree, the application of the 
doctrine of squatter sovereignty from the pro-slavery standpoint. As Eli 
Thayer had organized a $5,000,000 company to assist in settling Kansas with 
freemen, the first thing deemed proper by his enemies was to oflfer a reward 
of $200 for his capture and delivery to the squatters of Kansas, and so the 
Western Reporter published such an advertisement, with the view probably 
of nipping all the trouble in the bud. But they failed to catch him, and in 
November Atchison and Stringfellow got busy organizing secret societies in 
western Missouri to foray into Kansas to carry the banner of "slavery or 
banishment. "2« This was at least seven years before a Kansas raider, a 
Kansas red-leg, or a Kansas jayhawker was heard of. November 6, 1854, 
Mr. Atchison made a speech in Platte county, of which the Platte Argus re- 
ports: "When you reside in one day's journey of the territory, and when 
your peace, your quiet and your property depend upon your action, you can, 

Note 23.— Webb's Scrap-book. vol. 4. p. 60. 

Note 24.— Here are a few sentences from Gerritt Smith : "Political action is just now our 
greatest evil. We are looking after ballots, when our eyes should be fixed on bayonets. We are 
counting votes when we should be mustering armed men. We are looking after the interests of 
civil rulers when we should be searching after military rulers. I only hope, sir, to hear that 
there has been a collision at Topeka. I only hope to hear of a collision between the free-slate 
men and the federal troops, and that Northern men have fallen ; and then will soon follow the 
gratifying news that the Northern states have arrayed themselves against the federal govern- 
ment in Kansas. And will that be the end? No. Missouri will be the battle-field in her time, 
and then slavery will be driven to the wall."— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 15, p. 92. 

Note 25.-Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 1. p. 162. 

Note 26.-Webb'8 Scrap-book, vol. 2, p. 22. 



The First Tivo Years of Kansas. 11 

without an exertion, send 500 of your young men who will vote in favor of 
your institutions. Should each county in the state of Missouri only do its 
duty, the question will be decided quietly and peaceably at the ballot-box. " ^' 

The first election was held November 30, 1854, when Whitfield was chosen 
by a vote of 2258 to 574 scattering. The census taken in February, 1855, 
showed 2905 voters. Historical accuracy probably demands that 1 say that 
the first murder in Kansas was caused by whisky, and not squatter 
sovereignty. Returning from the polls at Lawrence on this day, Henry 
Davis, a Kentuckian, was killed by Lucius Kibbey, from Iowa. According 
to the testimony of two of the crowd, some one fired a small house by the 
roadside. Kibbey, who was in a wagon, denounced the act and said he would 
report the perpetrator to the proper authority. Davis, who was on the road, 
full of whisky, made several attempts to reach Kibbey with a knife, when 
the latter picked up a gun and killed him. And yet the spirit of squatter 
sovereignty was there, for Davis said to Kibbey, as he made a lunge for him 
with his knife: "I will report you to hell. "^s Dr. S. E. Martin, still living 
in Topeka, says that he witnessed this murder while traveling along the 
road a hundred feet or more behind the crowd. 

The day after the election one writer, I find, sounded this warning: "One 
thing is probable, viz., if slaveholders in Missouri insist upon interfering 
in our affairs, they must blame no one but themselves if the underground 
railroad should be in operation from that state to Canada via Kansas Terri- 
tory. ... If the conduct of yesterday is repeated at our next election, 
they must take the trouble to watch their own property and institutions 
themselves, lest they take legs and run away when they least desire it."2» 
This was four years before John Brown went over into Vernon county, Mis- 
souri, and brought out eleven negro slaves. 

December 25, 1854, a meeting of the citizens of Lafayette county. Mis- 
souri, resolved as follows: *'That we, the shippers, merchants, planters, 
and citizens generally of Lafayette county, deem it an act of injustice that 
steamboats on the Missouri river should give their aid or countenance to the 
base attempt to abolitionize the territory of Kansas by aiding or forwarding 
any persons who may be sent by any abolition society thereto, or in giving 
aid or assistance to any such object, and that in our trading, shipping and 
traveling we will give preference to such boats as will refuse their aid and 
comfort to such emigration as may be forwarded by any abolition society 
for such purpose. "30 

At this point the weather evidently cooled all parties off, for there was a 
lull during January. In the months of March and April, 1855, a significant 
•addition to the population was made, and John Brown, jr., Jason, Owen, 
Frederick, and Salmon, sons of John Brown, settled on Pottawatomie creek, 
eight miles from Osawatomie. They brought with them eleven head of 
cattle, three horses, tents, plows, and other farming tools, and a lot of fruit- 
trees and grape-vines, and their first job was to break twelve acres of prairie. 

March 30, 1855, one thousand Missourians arrived in Lawrence to vote. 
Mrs. Robinson says: "They talk loudly of 'fighting and driving out the 

Note 27.— Wilder's Annals of Kansas, 2d ed., p. 52. 
Note 28.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 2, pp. 59, 155. 
Note 29.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 2, p. 98. 
NojE 30.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 2, p. 181. 



12 The First Two Years of Kansas. 

free-state men.' They p;o armed and provisioned. " 3i Doctor Stringfellow, 
as editor of the Squatter Sovereign, complained because Governor Reeder 
gave a certificate of election to Martin F. Conway, instead of Mr. Donald- 
son in the Pawnee district, claiming that the latter had a majority of 250 
votes, and says: "We can't stand that, certainly. Damned if we do. If 
the legislature don't reconsider the action of the governor and give Mr. 
Donaldson a seat, the squatter sovereigns will take the matter in hand."^^ 
Conway received 538 votes and Donaldson 396, but the legislature heeded 
Stringfellow, and Conway was let out. 

April 14, 1855, the Parkville Luminary, George S, Parks' paper, was de- 
stroyed and the material thrown into the river. This was because of edi- 
torials criticising Missourians for going over into Kansas and voting. . The 
crowd that did the job held a meeting and adopted eight resolutions, one of 
them being as follows: "(3) That we meet here again on this day three 
weeks, and if we find G. S. Parks* or W. J. Patterson in this town then, or 
at any subsequent time, we will throw them into the Missouri river, and if 
they go to Kansas to reside, we pledge our honor as men to follow and hang 
them whenever we can take them." ^3 

The following papers in Missouri opposed mob-law and denounced the in- 
vasion of Kansas : The Boonville Observer, Independence Messenger, Jeffer- 
son City Inquirer, Missouri Democrat, St. Louis Intelligencer, Columbia 
Statesman, Glasgow Times, Fulton Telegraph, Paris Mercury, and Hannibal 
Messenger. But the Squatter Sovereign, published at Atchison, approved 
of the destruction of the Parkville Luminary, and made threats toward 
Jefferson City and Lawrence. ^'^ A public meetingat Webster, Mo., ratified the 
action of the mob at Parkville in destroying the Luminary, asserting "that 
they have no arguments against abolition papers but Missouri river, bonfire 
and hemp-rope," and "they pledge themselves to go to Kansas and help 
expel those corrupting the slaves. "^^ 

April 30, 1855, a meeting at Leavenworth adopted several resolutions 
recognizing slavery in Kansas, and closing with this: "Resolved, That a 
vigilance committee, consisting of thirty members, shall now be appointed 
who shall observe and report all such persons as shall openly act in violation 
of law and order and by the expression of abolition sentiments produce dis- 
turbance to the quiet of the citizens or danger to their domestic relations, 
and all such persons so offending shall be notified and made to leave the 
territory. "38 

April 30, 1855, Cole McCrea, free-state, killed Malcolm Clark at Leaven- 
worth. The quarrel occurred at a squatters' meeting, over the right of 
McCrea to participate and vote, and about claims on certain trust lands.* 
The grand jury in September failed to find a bill against McCrea. Mrs. 

* George S. Parks, the founder of Parkville and Park College, said: "All Northern men are 
proscribed and ruined in their business and character who do not subscribe to their most ultra 
doctrines. In this manner whole communities are overawed. One man said to me in Parkville: 
'Times are worse here now than they were in France in the days of Robespierre ; ' others said it 
was the first time they were afraid to avow their real sentiments. No one knew when his busi- 
ness would be destroyed or he be ordered out of the country. In this way citizens are paralyzed 
and subdued."— Webb's Scrap-book. vol. 4, p. 94. 

Note 31.— Mrs. Sara T. D. Robinson's Kansas Interior and Exterior Life, p. 27. 

Note 32.-Webb's Scrap- ook. vol. 3, p. 207. 

Note 33.- Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 3, p. 158. 

Note 34.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 4, p. 13. 

Note 35.— Webb's Scrap-book. vol. 3. p. 213. • 

Note 36.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 4, p. 59. 



The First Two Years of Kansas. 13 

Robinson says that at an adjourned term of court, in November, the grand 
jury, with seven new members added, indicted McCrea for murder in the 
first degrree. Four of the counsel within the bar, including the clerk of the 
court, were connected with the tarring and feathering of Phillips on the 
17th day of May.-" The congressional committee -'s said that in no case of 
crime had an indictment been found, except in the homicide of Clark by 
McCrea— McCrea being a free-state man. Concerning this trouble, String- 
fellow said : "Let us begin to purge ourselves of all abolition emissaries 
who occupy our dominion, and give distinct notice that all who do not leave 
immediately for the East will leave for eternity. "-^'J And the Leavenworth 
Herald, a few days later, remarked : "Suffer not an armed abolitionist to 
remain within your borders." 

The vigilance committee appointed at Leavenworth on April 30, 1855, 
gave notice to William Phillips, an active free-state lawyer in that city, to 
leave the territory. He refused, and was seized, taken to Weston, one side 
of his head shaved, stripped of his clothes, tarred and feathered, ridden for 
a mile and a half on a rail, and a negro auctioneer went through the mock- 
ery of selling him for one dollar. May 20, 1855, the Leavenworth Herald 
says of the tarring and feathering: "Our action in the whole affair is em- 
phatically indorsed by the pro-slavery party in this district. The joy, ex- 
ultation and glorification produced by it in our community are unparalleled. " 
A public meeting in Leavenworth, May 25, resolved, "That we heartily in- 
dorse the action of the citizens who shaved, tarred and feathered, rode on a 
rail and had sold by a negro, William Phillips, the moral perjurer." Phil- 
lips had protested against a fraudulent election, and he was accused of be- 
friending McCrea at the squatters' meeting, April 30. Phillips was killed 
in his home September 1, 1856, by squatter sovereigns, led by Fred Emery. ^» 

In the mad career of the sovereign squats a Missouri newspaper sounds 
an alarm, but to no purpose. The St. Louis Intelligencer says: "If they 
(the ruffians of the border) succeed Missouri will soon be aflame. It will 
spread to the South, and the Union itself will perish like a burnt scroll."^' 

The St, Louis News, of May 12, 1855, said: "We understand and believe 
that David R. Atchison is at the bottom of all the troubles that have af- 
flicted Kansas, and is the chief instigator of the meetings, mobs and cabals, 
threats and excitements which threaten to plunge the border into a wild 
fratricidal strife."*- 

These St. Louis editors possibly had a vision of General Order No. 11, 
when General Ewing of Kansas endeavored to put a lid on." 

Note 37.— Mrs. Sara T. D. Robinson's Kansas Interior and Exterior Life, pp. 112, 113. 

Note 38.— Report, 1856, p. 64. 

Note 39.— Webb's Scrap-book. vol. 4, p. 76. 

Note 40.— Moore's History of Leavenworth, p. 262. 

Note 41.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 4, p. 12. 

Note 42.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 4, p. 27. 

Note 43.— The idea embraced in General Order No. 11 was not original with General Ewing. It 
was a southern Missouri invention, thoroughly squatter sovereign. The State Historical Society 
has recently received a publication entitled. "A History of Southern Missouri and Northern Ar- 
kansas," by William Monks. William Monks is a resident of West Plains, Mo. He was born in 
Alabama. His people were Virginians, or North Carolinians, and were of revolutionary stock. 
He settled with his father's family in Fulton county, Arkansas, in 1844. and in 1858 he became a 
resident of West Plains, in Missouri. At the beginning of the civil war he announced himself as 
an uncompromising Union man. but to all the rebel entreaties and threats he disclaimed all desire 
to fight. He was finally taken prisoner by the rebels and dragged over the country, subjected to 
all sorts of outrages and constantly threatened with death. He made his escape and enlisted in 
the federal army. He did remarkable service as a captain in the Sixteenth Missouri, and at the 
elose of the war was placed in command of militia to exterminate the Kuklux in his neighbor- 



14 The First Two Years of Kansas. 

About this time they also got a couple of tips from another quarter. June 
25, 1855, a free-state convention participated in by J. A. Wakefield, J. L. 
Speer, R. G. Elliott, S. N. Wood. John Brown, jr., and others, resolved: "That 
in reply to the threats of war so frequently made in our neighbor state, our 
answer is, 'we are ready.' " And a few days later, June 27, a convention of 
National Democrats, participated in by James H. Lane, C. W. Babcock, James 
S. Emery and Hugh Cameron, met in Lawrence to "kindly request the citi- 
zens of North'^rn and Southern districts and adjoining states to let us alone;" 
and that we "will not if in our power to prevent . . . permit the ballot- 
box to be polluted by outsiders, or illegal voting from any quarter. "*•» 

July 2, 1855, the pro-slavery legislature met at Pawnee, and made itself 
solidly pro-slavery by unseating several free-state members. It met ac- 
cording to adjournment, at Shawnee Mission, July 16. It passed laws which 
General Stringfellow said "were more efficient to protect slave property 
than those of any state in the Union, ' ' and that they ' ' will be enforced to the 
very letter. "^^ By those laws only pro-slavery men could hold office. All 
officials were compelled to take oath to support the fugitive-slave law." 
According to a concurrent resolution offered by Speaker Stringfellow and 
adopted by both houses on the adjournment, pro-slavery Whigs and pro- 
slavery Democrats would be tolerated in Kansas; all others were enemies, 
disunionists and abolitionists.*^ H. Miles Moore, a free-soiler, and a Demo- 
crat from Missouri, in his History of Leavenworth County, says that to a 
man from Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio, or elsewhere, claiming to be a Na- 
tional Democrat, the noble sons of Missouri generally responded: "That 
won't do; we have but two parties here, either pro-slavery law-and-order 
men, or free-state abolitionists; and you make your choice and that damned 
soon, or go down the river back to where you came from." *^ The attempt 
to organize a Democratic party was thus squeezed out, and a few weeks 
later we find C. W. Babcock, Marcus J. Parrott, James H. Lane, James S. 
Emery, H. Miles Moore, and others of like belief, participating in the Big 

hood. On page 86 and subsequent pages of his book we read: "After they (the confederates) 
had hung, shot, captured and driven from the country all the Union men. they called a public 
meeting for the purpose of taking into consideration what should be done with the families of 
the Union men. . . . They at once appointed men. among whom were several preachers, to 
go to each one of the Union families and notify them them that they would not be allowed to re- 
main, because if they let them stay their men would be trying to come back. . . . Also, as 
they had taken up arms against the confederate states, all of the property they had. both real 
and personal, was subject to confiscation. . . . They said they might have a reasonable time 
to make preparations to leave the country, and if they did n't leave, they would be forced to do 
80, if they had to arrest them and carry them out. . . . The suffering that followed the women 
and children is indescribable. They had to drive their own teams, take care of the little ones, 
and travel thi-ough storms, exposed to all without a man to help them. On reaching the federal 
lines all vacant houses and places of shelter were soon filled, and they were known and styled 
refugees." This was early in 18-51. dilonel Monk's description of those days in southern Mis- 
souri shows that Ewing's Order No. 11, in comparison, was a very tame and trifling affair. Page 
15S : "The writer wants to say that there was not a Union man nor a single Union family left at 
home from Batesville, Ark., to RoUa, Mo., a distance of 200 miles." Ewing's General Order No. 
11 was a necessity caused by the most infamaus butchery in the history of warfare, while in 
southern Missouri a similar order was enforced, with a fiendishness characteristic of the cause 
which prompted No. 11. on people guilty only of loyalty to their government. Colonel Monk's 
book is full of outrages perpetrated on Union people in southern Missouri, before a Kansas raider 
was heard of. 

Note 44.— Kansas Free State, July 2. 18.5.5, p. 2. 

Note 45.— Wilder's Annals of Kansas. 2d ed., p. 82. 

NoTR 46. — Kansas Statutes '855, ch. 117. [William W. Boyce, a member of Congress from 
South Carolina from 1853 to 1830, said, about June 1, 185i: " We cannot defend them (the laws 
of Kansas), we ought not to doit, and I have no respect for the man who makes the attempt."— 
Webb's Scrap-hook, vol. 13, p. 52.] 

Note 47. — House Journal. 1855, p. 380. 

Note 48. — Moore's History of Leavenworth County, pp. 102, 103. 



The First Tiuo Years of Kansas. 15 

Sprirgs convention, September 5. 1855, which organized the Free-state 
party. 

August 16, 1855, the Rev. Pardee Butler was placed on a raft at Atchison 
and shipped down the Missouri river. Several citizens followed throwing 
stones at him. He had the letter R legibly painted on his forehead. Mr. 
Butler had avowed himself a free-soiler on the streets of Atchison, and a 
committee had been appointed to wait on him, requesting his signature to 
certain resolutions adopted by a recent pro-slavery meeting. After read- 
ing them he declined to sign, and was instantly arrested. Various plans 
were considered for his disposal, with the foregoing result. The Squatter 
Sovereign closed its editorial on the affair with the words : "Such treatment 
may be expected by all scoundrels visiting our town for the purpose of in- 
terfering with our time-honored institutions, and the same punishment we 
will be happy to award to all free-soilers, abolitionists, and their emissaries." 
A flag was placed on the raft bearing the mottoes : ' ' Eastern Aid Express ' ' ; 
"Greeley to the rescue, I have a nigger"; "'Rev.' Mr. Butler, agent to 
the Underground Railroad."'"' 

The doctrine of squatter sovereignty seems to have been closely allied 
with the moral and spiritual condition of the people. July 25, 1855, the 
Randolph county, Missouri, people resolved " (10) That we consider any per- 
son holding and avowing free-soil and abolition views unfit to teach in Sun- 
day or any other school ; that we are opposed to such person being employed 
for that purpose."5o And a few days later a public meeting of the citizens 
of Jackson county, Missouri, adopted a resolution warning a conference of 
the Methodist Church North not to meet at Independence, Mo., because of 
the "supposed anti-slavery sentiments and opinions of the ministers and 
others who will constitute said conference. "^^ 

The Squatter Sovereign, Stringfellow's paper at Atchison, August 28, 
1855, also sounds a warning: "We can tell the impertinent scoundrels of 
the (New York) Tribune that they may exhaust an ocean of ink, their 
Emigrant Aid Societies spend their millions and billions, their representa- 
tives in Congress spout their heretical theories till doomsday, and his excel- 
lency Franklin Pierce appoint abolitionist after free-soiler as governor, yet 
we will continue to tar and feather, drown, lynch and hang every white- 
livered abolitionist who dares to pollute our soil." ^~ 

But all their petitions and threats counted for naught, and old John Brown 
joined his sons on the Pottawatomie during the first week of October, 1855. 
He remained in Kansas until about February 1, 1859. His became the most 
conspicuous world-wide Kansas name, and, singularly enough, with that of 
Atchison a close second— John Brown because he gave his life and Atchison 
because the stock of our greatest railroad is listed in all the money markets 
of the world as the "Atchison." 

Under all circumstances, it seems, there must be some humor in life. 
On the 13th of October, 1855, the Leavenworth Herald, pro-slavery, rebuked 
Missourians for coming over and voting on a purely local issue. They held 
an election for county-seat. The election resulted in 929 votes for Dela- 
ware, 881 for Kickapoo, and 727 for Leavenworth. Delaware and Kickapoo 

Note 49.— Personal Recollections of Pardee Butler, chapter 7. 
Note 50.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 5, p. 69. 
Note 51.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 5, p. 140. 
Note 52.— Webb's Scrap-book, voL 5, p. 157. 



16 The First Two Years of Kansas. 

advertised free ferry, free excursion and barbecue and other inducements 
for Missourians. "Has it come to this," says the Herald, "that Missou- 
rians must come in at our local elections and control our county affairs? 
. . . Can we as citizens of the territory and the county of Leavenworth, 
who have borne the burden of settling a new country and undergone all the 
privations and difficulties of a frontier life, sit still and permit our rights to 
be trampled upon? No, we cannot and will not. The polls at Kickapoo 
and Delaware must be purged of all Missouri votes. "^3 And so squatter 
sovereignty meant one thing as applied to slavery and something else on 
another issue, s* 

It was declared to be treason by a pro-slavery law and order convention 
at Leavenworth, November 14, 1855, to oppose the pro-slavery laws." 
Phillip C. Schuyler, the founder of Burlingame, met several delegates to 
this conventiort at Lawrence. One of them told him they would kill him if 
he did not obey the pro-slavery laws ; another said he would be regarded as 
a traitor to his country and the constitution; while a third said: "We will 
kill you and light your souls to hell with the flames of your dwellings." 
Schuyler protested that this was very uncivil language, and in response he 
was denounced as a liar, a scoundrel, and a traitor, s* 

Samuel Collins, free-state, was killed by Patrick McLaughlin at Doni- 
phan, October 25, 1855. No punishment for McLaughlin. ^^ 

Chas. W. Dow, free-state, killed by Franklin N. Coleman, pro-slavery, in 
Douglas county, November 21, 1855. ^^ 

November 26, 1855, the free-state men held a meeting at the spot where 
Dow was killed. Jacob Branson, with whom Dow lived, was arrested the 
same night for attending the meeting. Fifteen free-state men led by S. N. 
Wood, J. B. Abbott, and S. F. Tappan, rescue Branson. ^9 

November 29, 1855. — A mob from Missouri is gathering at Franklin, a 
few miles from Lawrence.^" 

December 6, 1855. — Lawrence nearly surrounded by about 1500 Missouri- 

NOTE 53.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 6, p. 97. 

Note 54.— H. Miles Moore, one of the six survivors of the first free-state territorial legislature, 
which met at Lecompton December 7, 1857, in his sworn testimony before the special committee 
on the troubles in Kansas, says: "I had believed that the Missourians had had some justification 
for endeavoring to come and control the territorial legislation, in order to afFoid more security to 
their slave property in Missouri, and for that reason I had come with them ; but their course with re- 
gard to the mere local election for county-seat was so high-handed an outrage upon the rights of the 
people of the territory, of whom I had then become one, that I came to the resolution that I would 
not longer act with a party so regardless of the rights of others that they would interfere in a 
matter in which they could have no personal or political interest ; I determined to act with the 
free-state party so long as they were actuated by what I considered proper motives, though I 
would have continued to act with the pro-rlavery party had they not acted as they did. I there- 
fore concluded to act with the free state party so long as they were willing to act consistently 
with the principles of the organic act and submit to the territorial laws while in force. At the 
•election for county-seat Delaware county [precinct], with a population of not more than fifty 
voters, polled nearly a thousand votes. A la'ge majority of the votes polled at Kickapoo were by 
Missourians. The people of L< avenworth polled between 500 and fiOO votes, all given by actual resi- 
dents, so far as I was able to find out. In consequence of my determination at this time to act 
thereafter with the free-state party I became obnoxious to the pro-slavery men, both in Missouri 
and in the territory. My per.-^on and property has been frequently threatened with violence and 
destruction by them for six months or more past." Moore was arrested and ordered to leave the 
territory for taking a part in the free-state movement. — Report of Congressional Committee, 
1856, p. 422. 41 

Note 55.— September 7. 1855, the Herald of Freedom was refused circulation through the 
Atchison post-office. — Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 5, p. 178. 

Note 56.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 7, p. 126. 

Note 57. — Phillips's Conquest of Kansas, p. 144. 

Note 58.— Phillips's Conquest of Kansas, p. 153. 

Note 59.— Phillips's Conquest of Kansas, ch. 11. 

Note 60.— Phillips's Conquest of Kansas, p. 176. 



The First Ttvo Years of Kansas. 17 

ans. Treaty of peace signed by Governor Shannon, Chas. Robinson and 
James H. Lane, and December 8 army of invasion ordered to disband by 
Governor Sliannon. John Brown and four sons, all armed, are in Lawrence 
at this time. They were the best armed of the defenders. Brown was 
given a captain's commission by Robinson. s' 

Here is the first reference to the Lane Robinson feud we have found, an 
editorial in the St. Louis Evening News of December 28, 1855: "On the 
other hand, the abolitionists since the peace do not appear to be getting 
along as harmoniously and affectionately as they might. General Lane and 
Doctor Robinson, the leaders, differed about the terms of the treaty, Lane 
being in favor of resisting the territorial laws by actual force, while Robin- 
son was content to abide by with a protest against them until their validity 
can be decided by ,he federal court. While the Missourians were encamped 
before Lawrence, Lane wanted to attack them, while Robinson insisted on 
waiting to be attacked by them. Lane was for offensive operations, and 
Robinson for defensive, and. as both undoubtedly had personal aspirations 
to gratify, a bitter feud sprang up between them which has seriously marred 
the symmetry of their cause. "^2 

December 6, 1855.— Thos. W. Barber, free-state, was shot and killed on 
the road four miles southwest of Lawrence. Report on Kansas Claims, 
1861-'62, signed by Edward Hoogland, Henry J. Adams, and Samuel A. 
Kingman, page 62, says: "Either George W. Clark or Mr. (James N.) 
Burnes (afterwards a member of Congress) murdered Thos. Barber. . . . 
Both fired at him, and it is impossible from the proof to tell whose shot was 
fatal. He, Samuel J. Jones, said Major Clark and Burnes both claimed 
the credit of killing that damned abolitionist, and he did n't know which 
ought to have it. If Shannon had n't been a damned old fool, peace would 
never have been declared. He would have wiped Lawrence out. He had 
men and means enough to do it. "^^ 

December 22, 1855. — Pro-slavery men destroy Mark W. Delahay's Ter- 
ritorial Register, a free-state paper, at Leavenworth.** The free-state 
election on the Topeka constitution was broken up by pro-slavery men in 
Leavenworth. *5 

December 26, 1855.— The Kickapoo Pioneer says : "It is this class of men 
that have congregated at Lawrence, and it is this class of men Kansas must 
get rid of. And we know of no better method than for every man who 
loves his country and the laws by which he is governed to meet in Kansas 
and kill off this God-forsaken class of humanity as soon as they place their 
feet upon our soil." 

January 17, 1856.— Murder of Capt. R. P. Brown, free-state, at Easton, 
Kan., by a pro-slavery mob. The Leavenworth free-state election had been 
adjourned to Easton at this date, and the killing of Brown closed the day. 
The Leavenworth Herald justifies the murder. Brown had three cracks in 
his skull from a hatchet, and they spit tobacco juice in his wounds, because 
"anything would make a damned abolitionist feel better. "*« 

Note 61.— Sanborn's John Brown Letters, p. 217. Dec. 16, 1855. 

Note 62.— Webb's Scrap-book. vol. 7. p. 233. 

Note 63. — Phillips's Conquest of Kansas, p. 211. 

Note 64.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 8, p. 16. 

Note 65.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 8, p. 9. 

Note 66.— Phillips's Conquest of Kansas, ch. 18. 



18 The First Tivo Years of Kansas. 

The squatter sovereigns had warmed up considerably by the end of the 
year, and we find no let-up on account of the weather in January, 1856. The 
Kickapoo Pioneer, on the 18th, issued an extra, from which we quote : "For- 
bearance has now indeed ceased to be a virtue, therefore we call on every 
pro-slavery man in the land to rally to the rescue — Kansas must be immedi- 
ately rescued from these tyrannical dogs. The Kickapoo Rangers are at 
this moment beating to arms. . . . Sound the bugle of war over the 
length and breadth of the land, and leave not an abolitionist in the territory 
to relate their treacherous and contaminating deeds— strike your piercing 
rifle-balls and your glittering steel to their black and poisonous hearts."*' 

And so we had the savages who butchered at Lawrence. 

January 23, 1856, Horace Greeley was twice assaulted in Washington by 
Albert Rust, a member of Congress from Arkansas. ^^ 

Fehrua.ry 20,1856.— The Squatter Sovereign says: "In our opinion the 
only effectual way to correct the evils that now exist is to hang up to the 
nearest tree the very last traitor who was instrumental in getting up or 
participating in the celebrated Topeka (free-state) convention." About 
this time also the Squatter Sovereign suggests Lexington, Mo., as a suitable 
place for a political quarantine, "where all steamboats may be searched and 
the infectious political paupers be prevented from tainting the air of Kan- 
sas territory with their presence." And immediately after all boats coming 
up the Missouri river were overhauled and searched for goods pronounced 
contraband. At Brunswick, Mo., an armed party came on a boat and took 
a stranger whom they were confident was Governor Robinson. They were 
making arrangements to tie him to a log and start him down the river, but 
letters in his trunk satisfied them that they had a friend instead of the gov* 
ernor. He said he would never travel the river again without a passport 
from Pierce or Douglas, endorsed by Atchison and Stringfe'low.** 

And so we had the overland travel into the territory through Iowa and 
Nebraska and the historic "Lane road." The story of Kansas will never 
be complete without a political history of the Missouri river. 

The Squatter Sovereign was still not happy, for in April, 1856, it says: 
"If Kansas is not made a slave state, it requires no sage to tell that without 
some very extraordinary revolution there will never be another slave state; 
and if this is not enough, then we say, without fear of successful contradic- 
tion, that Kansas must be a slave state or the Union will be dissolved." '" 

April 30, 1856. — Pardee Butler returns from Illinois to Atchison, and is 
stripped, tarred, and, for want of feathers, covered with cotton. August 17, 
1855, Butler had been shipped down the river on a log and told not to come 

Note 67.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 8, p. 19. 

Note 68. — Greeley's Record of a Busy Life, p. 348. 

Note 69.— This is further confirmed by the following from the Squatter Sovereign: "More 
Abolitionists Turned Back. The steamer Sultan having on board contraband articles was recently 
stopped at Leavenworth city (July 5, 1856) , and lightened of forty-four rifles and a large quantity 
of pistols and bowie-knives, taken from a crowd of cowardly Yankees, shipped out here by Mas- 
sachusetts. The boat was permitted to go up the river as far as Weston. Mo., where a guard was 
placed over the prisoners, and none of them permitted to land. They were shipped back from 
Weston on the same boat, without even being insured by the shippers. We do not approve fully 
of sending these criminals back to the East, to be re-shipped to Kansas— if not through Missouri, 
through Iowa and Nebraska. We think they should meet a traitor's death, and the world could 
not censure us if we. in self-protection, have to resort to such ultra measures. We are of the 
opinion if the citizens of Leavenworth city or Weston, would hang one or two boat-loads of abo- 
litionists, it would do more toward establishing peace in Kan?sas than all the speeches that have 
been delivered in Congress during the present session. Let the experiment be tried." — Webb's 
Scrap-book, vol. 15. p. 73. 

Note 70.— Webb's Scrap-book. vol. 11. p. 149. 



The First Tivo Years of Kansas. 19 

back. On this day, April 30, 1856, R. S. Kelley, Stringfellow's partner, wrote 
to a friend: "As the steamer Aubrey leaves we have just finished 'tar and 
feathering' the Rev. Pardee Butler, who was shipped on a raft from this 
place in August last. He escaped hanging by only one vote. Butler, you 
know, is a rank abolitionist, and was promised this treatment should he visit 
our town. In the event of his return, he will be hung, "^i 

The scene shifts, and there is constant trouble on the Marais des Cygnes 
after the arrival of Buford's men in April, 1856. A Vermonter named Ba- 
ker was taken from his cabin, whipped, hanged to a tree, but cut down be- 
fore death, and released upon his promise to leave Kansas. John Brown, 
with his sons, Owen, Frederick, Salmon, and Oliver, with surveyor's com- 
pass and instruments, run a line through Buford's camp. Assuming that 
they were government surveyors, and therefore "sound on the goose," the 
Georgians informed them "that they would make no war on them as minds 
their own business, but all the abolitionists, such as them damned Browns 
over there, we're going to whip, drive out, or kill." "- 

Events have been coming so rapidly in the unfolding of the great squat- 
ter sovereignty scheme, that I am able now to touch only the high places. 
I have not produced a picture of these sovereign squats. Dr. J. V. C. 
Smith, of Boston, a traveler through the country, describes the Missouri 
bandits as follows: "Those I saw at Westport, whose camp was in the 
woods only a few rods out of the territory, were young men, rough, coarse, 
sneering, swaggering, dare-devil looking rascals as ever swung upon a gal- 
lows. The marauders were mounted upon horses and mules, armed to the 
teeth with pistols, long knives and carbines. ^^ They rob travelers, surprise 
the humble residents of prairie cabins, whom they strip of their valuables, 
and in repeated instances murder the owner. They drive off cattle, the 
property most in request, and steal horses. They oblige a man to dismount. 

Note 71.— Webb's Scrap-book. vol. 12. p. 163. 

The wordincr of this letter, as well as its tone, leads to the suspicion that Robert S. Kelley 
and not Doctor String-fellow was the author of the virulent editorials which graced the pages of 
the Squatter Sovereign. Here is another of Mr. Kelley's letters, addressed to the gentlemen who 
bought out the paper, and who had joined hands in 1857 with the Stringfellows in booming the 
town of Atchison : 
-Messrs. Pomeroy & McBratney : " DONIPHAN. K. T.. June 21. 1857. 

"Gents (?) — I am authorized by all of the subscribers to tne Squatter Sovereign in Char\es- 
ton, S. C, to have their papers discontinued. When they subscribed to the journal, they dime so 
to advance the pro-slavery interest in the territory. When traitors, for gold, sell themselves and 
their country, they do not consider themselves bound by the bargain. They are unwilling to 
support, either directly or indirectly, traitors, abolitionists and mgro stealers. Do not further 
insult them by continuing the paper. You also may balance the accounts of all the Doniphan 
subscribers to the Squatter. 

"May sickness, disease, and. finally, death, be the result of your connection with the Squat- 
ter Sovereign, is the sincere wish of ROBERT S. Kelley." 

Dr. John H. Stringfellow was a brother to Benjamin F. Stringfellow. The former was 
speaker of the territorial legislature of 1855. 

Note 72.— Sanborn's John Brown, p. 230. 

Note 73.— This is a very gentle reference to those called "border ruffians" when compared 
with the statements made by Thomas H Gladstone, a cousin of William E. Gladstone, the premier 
of England, in a book entitled " Kanzas ; Squatter Life and Botd ;r Warfare in the Far West." 
Gladstone was a correspondent of the Loi don Times, and was induced by the debates in Congress 
and general excitement about Kansas to make a tour of the territor.v in 1856, and an investigation 
for his own satisfact'on. His hook abounds in awful description. "I had just arrived in Kansas 
City," he says on page 38, "and shall never forget the appearance of the lawless mob that poured 
into the place ( it was after the sacking of Lawrence May 21. 18.5t;), inflamed with drink, glutted 
with the indulgence of the vilest passions, displaying with loud boasts the ' plunder' they had 
taken from the inhabitants, and thir.sting for the opportunity of repeating the sack of Lawrence 
in some other offending place." On the same p-(ge is a sentence which has been a standing 
sermon ever since: "Having once been taught that robbery and outrage, if committed in the 
service of the South, were to be regarded as deeds of loyalty and obedience, these ministers of a 
self-styled 'law and order' were slow to unlearn a doctrine so acceptable." 



20 The First Two Yea7's of Kansas, 

and take his horse, and should he remonstrate or resist, blow his brains out 
without apology. " "* 

Henry Ward Beecher said he believed that "the Sharp's rifle was truly 
a moral agency, and there was more moral power in one of those instru- 
ments, so far as the slaveholders of Kansas were concerned, than in a hun- 
dred Bibles." "You might just as well," said he, "read the Bible to buffaloes 
as to those fellows who follow Atchison and Stringfellow; but they have a 
supreme respect for the logic that is embodied in Sharp's rifles. "^^ But let 
me emphasize again, they were but a fraction of the people of western Mis- 
souri. No greater, more useful or patriotic people ever lived than the gen- 
eration of Missourians who follo\Ved Doniphan, and who cut the trackless 
waste west of them by trails of commerce. 

May 5, 1856. —The grand jury of Douglas county recommends that the 
Herald of Freedom and Kansas Free State, newspapers, and the Eldridge 
House be abated as nuisances, and indicts Charles Robinson, Andrew H. 
Reeder and others for high treason in organizing a free- state government.'* 

May 7 and 9, 1856. —Attempt made to arrest Andrew H. Reeder. He 
escaped and, aided by Kersey Coates and the Eldridges, gets through Kan- 
sas City in disguise, and hires out as an Irish deck hand on a steamboat'' 

A man from Massachusetts by the name of Mace gave testimony that 
Sam Jones led a party that destroyed a ballot-box at Bloomington, and for 
this he was waylaid and shot near the front door of his cabin. The ruffians 
left him for dead, but he was alive, and after their departure crawled into 
his cabin comforted by the assurance from his assailants, that "there is 
some more damned good abolition wolf-bait. " '^ 

May 5, 1856. —The grand jury in session at Lecompton is charged by 
Judge Lecompte to indict for high treason or constructive treason certain 
parties "dubbed governor, lieutenant-governor, etc. —or individuals of in- 
fluence and notoriety " — meaning free-state leaders.'* 

May 10, 1856. —Charles Robinson, on his way east, is arrested at Lexing- 
ton, Mo., for treason, and brought back to Lecompton. 8" 

May 11, 1856.— J. B. Donaldson, United States marshal for Kansas ter- 
ritory, calls upon "law abiding citizens" to assist him in executing writs 
against citizens of Lawrence. 

May 13, 1856.— Citizens of Lawrence make a protest to the governor and 
the United States marshal. 

May 14, 1856.— Gaius Jenkins, Geo. W. Brown, Chas. Robinson, Geo. "W. 
Smith. Geo. W. Deitzler, John Brown, jr., and H. H. Williams were ar- 
rested this day or soon after, were denied bail, and, charged with high trea- 
son, were confined in camp at Lecompton. 

May 17, 1856. -C. W. Babcock, Lyman Allen, and J. A. Perry, appointed 
by the people of Lawrence, ask the United States marshal to put a stop to 
the depredations committed by a large force of armed men in the vicinity. «' 

Note 74.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 14, p. 35. 

Note 75.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 9, p. 67. 

Note 76.— Wilder's Annals of Kansas, 1st ed., p. 97. 

Note 77.— Kan. Hist. Coll., vol. 3, p. 205. 

Note 78. — Spring's History of Kansas, p. 120. 

Note 79.— Mrs. Sara T. D. Robinson's Kansas— its Interior and Exterior Life, p. 218. 

Note 80.— Mrs. Sara T. D. Robinson's Kansas— its Interior and Exterior Life, p. 267. 

Note 81.— Mrs. Sara T. D. Robinson's Kansas-its Interior and Exterior Life, p. 237. 



The First Tivo Years of Kansas. 21 

May 21, 1856. — Arrests of certain free-state men having been made in 
Lawrence during the forenoon. Sheriff Jones appeared in the afternoon with 
a body of armed men. The Eldridge House, the offices of the Herald of 
Freedom and the Kansas Free State were destroyed, stores were broken 
open and pillaged, and the dwelhng of Chas. Robinson burned. A grand 
jury, referring to the newspapers, recommended their abatement as a nui- 
sance, and as to the hotel they "recommended that steps be taken whereby 
this nuisance may be removed. "82 During the destruction Jones remarked : 
"Gentlemen, this is the happiest day of my life, I assure you."^ I deter- 
mined to make the fanatics bow before me in the dust and kiss the terri- 
torial laws." He looked at the hotel as another round was fired, and added, 
"I 've done it. by God, I 've done it !"84 

May 22, 1856. —Preston S. Brooks, of South Carolina, commits an as- 
sault on Charles Sumner in the United States senate, because of his speech 
entitled, "The Crime A2:ain?t Kiasis " Trie Sj'iattsr Sovereign said: 
"The assault on Sumner by Brooks is generally approved and applauded by 
the citizens of Kansas. We think it one of the best acts ever done in the 
senate chamber, "^s 

The 28th of June was the anniversary of the Palmetto ( South Carolina) 
Rifles, and at the celebration in Atchison a fine assortment of toasts were 
given. Here is one : "The Hon. Preston S. Brooks— by whipping crazy 
Sumner he has furnished a second edition of what the abolitionists call 
'border ruffianism'— that is the determination of honorable minds to resent 
injury and insult from a mouthpiece of fanaticism, coming from what quar- 
ter it may. "86 On the Fourth of July following South Carolina did better, 
thus: "May South Carolina always afford Brooks enough to cleanse such 
wild, dastardly lepers as Sumner, Wilson & Co." 

Up to this time, the spring of 1856, all the outrages committed by the 
free-state men were purely political ; that is, resistance to the pro-slavery 
territorial organization, and an attempt to organize under the provisional 
Topeka movement. But now a man arose who thought it time to strike a 
blow— that turning the other cheek had been worked long enough. 

May 23, 1856. —John Brown, wiih a company of free-state men, while on 
their way to the defense of Lawrence, were overtaken by a messenger from 
home, telling of outrages perpetrated the previous day on their families and 
neighbors by pro-slavery settlers on Pottawatomie creek. John Brown and 
his four sons Owen, Fred, Watson and Oliver, his son-in-law Henry Thomp- 
son, James Townsley, and Theodore Weiner, returned to Pottawatomie 
creek on the 23d. On the night of the 24th they took from their homes 

Note 82.— Wilder's Annals of Kansas, p. 121. 

Note 83. — "Men of the South and of Missouri. I am proud of this day. I have received office 
and honor before. I have occupied the vice-president's place in the greatest republic the light 
of God's sun ever shown upon. but. ruffian brothers (yells) that glory, that honor was nothing, it 
was an empty bubble compared with the solid grandeur and magnificent glory of this momen- 
tous occasion. Here, on this beautiful prairie bluff, with naught but the canopy of heaven for 
my covering, with my splendid Arabian charger for my shield, whose well tried fleetness I may 
yet have to depend upon for my life, unless this day's work shall drive from our Western world 
those hellish emigrants and paupers, whose bellies are filled with beggars' food, and whose houses 
are stored with Beecher Bibles."— Webb's Scrap-book. vol. 15, p. H3. This is but a small portion 
of a speech made by Atchison in camp, two miles from Lawrence, the day before the assault on 
that place. It is a half a newspaper column of the roughest stuff ever printed, and is vouched 
for by Dr. J. P. Root, who was a prisoner in the pro-slavery camp at the time. 

Note 84.-Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 12. p. 232. 

Note 85.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 14, p. 72. 

Note 86.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 15, p. 73. 



22 The First Two Years of Kansas. 

James P. Doyle and his sons William and Drury, Allen Wilkinson, and Wil- 
liam Sherman, and killed them. John Brown admitted his responsibility for 
the killing.^'' 

In a manuscript filed with the Kansas State Historical Society by August 
Bondi, of Salina, a Kansan of the highest repute since 1855, giving a sketch 
of his life as a revolutionist in Austria, a partisan with John Brown in Kan- 
sas, and a soldier in the Fifth Kansas cavalry, is the following : 

"In the evening of May 23 (1856), about nine p. M., came John Grant, 
jr., from Dutch Henry's crossing to the camp; he was a member of the 
Pottawatomie company, but at the urgent solicitation of mother and sister 
he had remained at home. He informed us that in the morning of the day 
Bill Sherman (Dutch Bill) had come to their cabin, only his mother and 
sister Mary at home, he and his father in the field, with his usual swagger- 
ing tone had denounced the abolitionists, and then had attempted to crimin- 
ally assault the girl. ( Mary Grant was twenty-three years old and one of the 
best-looking and best-educated girls on the creek; the family were from 
New York ) The outcries of the women brought father and son from the 
field, and Dutch Bill left, cursing and swearing utter extinction of all free- 
state men. Old John Brown heard the account and John Grant, jr. 's, ap- 
peal for protection some way or other. About the time, also, came in a 
runner from Lawrence with Colonel Sumner's proclamation, ordering all 
armed bodies to disperse, and thereupon the two companies agreed to break 
camp at dawn and return home. Old John Brown called his boys and myself 
and Weiner and Townsley to one side and made a short speech, telling us 
that for the protection of our friends and families a blow had to be struck 
on Pottawatomie creek, to strike terror into the pro-slavery miscreants who 
intended pillage and murder, and asked James Townsley, who had a team of 
grays, whether he would haul them. Townsley assented at once. Then he 
asked his boys, Fred, Owen, Salmon, and Oliver, and his son-in-law, 
Thompson, and Theodore Weiner, each separately, if willing to accompany 
him. They all assented. To me he said: 'I do not want you along; you 
have been away all winter; you are not so well known; we need some one 
to keep up communication with our families, so you will attend to bringing 
news to us and carrying news to our families. You may remain behind for 
the present, anyway; you may meet us, however, on my brother-in-law's 
(Day) claim to-morrow night.' He gave a few more immaterial instruc- 
tions. Townsiey had his team hitched up, the men of the expedition were 
on the wagon, old John Brown shook hands with me. and off they started, "^s 

Note 87.— Connelley's John Brown, p. 200. 

Note 88. — August Bondi fell dead on a street in St. Louis September 30, and was burit-d at 
Salina, Kan., October 3, 19U7. He told the writer frequently, in the past twenty years, that the 
political troubles in the territory had nothing to do with John Brown's action on the Pottawato- 
mie. He was asked why he never said anything about the cause he assigned, and he responiied 
that he did tell the Reverend Utter, when he had his controversy with ex-Senator Ingalls, but 
that Utter would not consider it. Probably there was no politics in the Mary Grant story, while 
practically all men would approve of killmg in case of an a sault upon a woman. Bondi was a 
splendid citizen, a Hebrew, and of late years an earnest and active member of the Democratic 
party. 

Mr. M. V. Jackson, the father of Hon. Fred S. Jackson, the present attorney-general of Kan- 
sas, still living at Eureka, has a statement on file with the Kansas State Historical Society, in 
which he says : 

"We arrived in Kansas November 20, 1855, and made settlement on a claim on Pottawatomie 
creek, four miles west of Osawatomie, and about the same distance from what is known as 
Dutch Henry's Crossing. Early in the spring of 1856 the pro-slavery people became quite ag- 
grressive and annoying to the few free-state settlers in that vicinity. The Shermans— three of 
them, Dutch Henry, Bill and Pete— lived near this ford, or crossing, known as Dutch Henry's 
Crossing. This was the headquarters of all the pro-slavery men in that vicinity, and the Sher- 
mans appeared to be the most aggressive and took the most active part in ordering free-state 
settlers to leave the neighborhood. Some week or ten days prior to the Pottawatomie massacre, 
as it has been called. Dutch Pete did insult and abuse Mary Grant, and about the same time or- 
dered Benjamin and Bondi, the parties who had charge of the little store on Mosquito branch, to 
leave. The day before the massacre most of the free-state settlers had started to Lawrence to 
aid the people there to repel an invasion of the border ruffians, who had congregated in consider- 
able force near the town. They had gotten as far as Ottawa Jones, and had gone into camp on 
Ottawa creek. Myself and a young man by the name of Glenn arrived at this camp about noon, 
and word had just been received from Lawrence to disband, as the trouble there had been settled 
for the present time. John Brown and his sons and Benjamin and Bondi. and a man by the 



The First Tivo Years of Kansas. 23 

From this time on conditions changed in Kansas. It was "an eye for an 
eye, and a tooth for a tooth." The storm started by the Salt Creek 
Squatters' Claim Association in May, 1854, culminated in northeastern 
Kansas in the fall of 1856, when the free-state men, following John Brown's 
example, organized in armed bands to defend their communities. Before 
the order of Governor Geary, dispersing all armed bodies, had come into 
effect, they had cleared up the slate by wiping out the pro-slavery rendez- 
vous at Washington creek, Franklin, and Hickory Point. By the spring of 
1857 marauding, except in southeastern Kansas, had practically ceased, 
though the official machinery set in motion by the bogus laws and supported 
by the territorial judiciary was a source of continual insult. But there 
were no raids from Kansas into Missouri during the two years of which I 
speak. The western Missouri practice of squatter sovereignty was popu- 
lar and continuous, its dire effects lasting with the people of that state un- 

name of Weiner, who was said to own the little store on the Mosquito branch, was at the camp. 
There appeared to be quite a lot of talk among the men in squads of two and three, and I made 
some inquiry as to what it was about, and if anythii g new had happened. I did not learn any- 
thing until I met this man Weiner, and he told me that they had just heard that since they had 
left home Bill Sherman, with two or three other parties, had been to the store, and that 
Dutch Bill was drunk and very abusive, and that he had abused Mrs. Benjamin and told her that 
they must leave within the next few days or they would be killed and the store burned. Mr. 
Weiner then stated that something had to be done, and that something was going to be done to 
stop this abuse ot free-state men and their families. I went back home that afternoon, and 
learned of the killing of five men about eight o'clock next morning." 

S. J. Shively, an attorney at Paola. a Missourian by birth, who spent his boyhood on Mosquito 
creek, made an address before the State Historical Society December 1, 1903, vol. 8, pages 177- 
187, in which he says : 

" Between the Pottawatomie and Mosquito creeks was a pro-slavery settlement. Just north 
of this, between the Mosquito and the Marais dfs Cygnes. was a fiee-state settlement, and just 
south of the Pottawatomie was a mixed complexion of politics. The Browns lived right in the 
hot-bed of the pro slavery nest. Some free-state men have thought that Wilkinson, Sherman 
and Doyle were unoffending, peaceable and harmless men. Wilkinson, elected by fraud and 
violence, seated by force and usurpation in a legislature the most infamous ever known, and who 
in that legislature voted for the black cede, could hardly be regarded as unoffending. Sherman, 
who fed and entertained gangs of drunken, lawless invaders, could hardly be said to be peace- 
able. Doyle, whose boys drove back old men, actual citizens, from the polls, could hardly be 
said to be harmless. . . . Civil war had been declared by the pro-slavery papers of Missouri 
and Kansas, and the right kind of characters were picked out to be sent to carry out their dec- 
larations. A great many of the free-state settlers on the Pottawatomie were from Missouri 
and other slave states, and well knew the men and methods they had to deal with. . . . Dur- 
ing the summer and fall of 1855, Wilkinson, who kept the post-office, would often misplace the 
mail and destroy the newspapers belonging to tree-state men. His post-office, called Sherman- 
ville, was the concentrating point where pro-slavery men would meet and curse and abuse aboli- 
tionists, and the ruffian conduct was sanctioned by the postmaster. . . One day in 1855 
Poindexter Manace, after leaving the post-office, was seen with a copy of the New York Tribune. 
He was told to throw away the damned incendiary sheet : he replied that it was the best paper 
published, and the crowd jumped on him and nearly beat him to death. . . . Early in the 
spring of 1856 the pro-slavery men on the Pottawatomie organized to drive out free-state men, 
and they invited Buford's men, fresh from the South, then stopping at Fort Scott, to come and 
help them break up the free-state settlements. . . . About the same time, while Mr. Day 
from over on the Marais des Cygnes, was at Weiner's store, a man rode up and handed him this 
note: 'This is to notify you that all free-state men now living on the Marais des Cygnes and 
Pottawatomie must leave the territory within thirty days or their throats will be cut. — Law and 
Order.' . . . James Hanway, who lived in the settlement at the time, said of the massacre 
afterwards : ' I am satisfied it saved the lives of many free-state men. We looked up to it as a 
sort of deliverance. Prior to this happening a ba^e conspiracy had been formed to drive out, to 
burn, to kill. In a word, the Pottawatomie creek from its fountainhead was to be cleared of 
free-state men.' . . . There was no intention to harm the peaceable pro-slavery men on the 
Pottawatomie, only the obnoxious ones— the ones that gave aid and comfort to the Missouri in- 
vaders, the Buford cut-throats, and Pate's gang. The Pottawatomie policy enabled the free- 
state men to stay, and, by staying saved Kansas to freedom. It gave notice to Missourians that 
no more ballot-box stuffing would be tolerated. Had the Pottawatomie policy been adopted 
sooner, at Leavenworth, perhaps the shocking cruelties inflicted on R, P. Brown and William 
Phillips, might have been avoided In the latter part of May, 1856, the free-state men of Kansas 
saw their leaders in prison, their newspapers thrown into the river, a reign of terror in Atchison, 
blood running down the streets of Leavenworth; Lawrence, their principal town, destroyed; 
armed hordes from every Southern state marching to Kansas ; free-state families in Linn and 
Bourbon counties leaving by the hundreds for their far eastern homes ; men all over the territory 
going to prison for speaking their sentiments ; their champion at the national capital, Charles 
Sumner, weltering in blood from slavery's blows for even speaking out against these crimes in 
Kansas." 

Richard J. Hinton, in his book, entitled "John Brown and His Men," page 87, says: "Henry 
Sherman, or 'Dutch Henry,' as he was called, lived on Pottawatomie creek, and kept a store or 



24 The First Two Years of Kansas. 

til Governor Crittenden offered a reward of $10,000 each for Frank and 
Jesse James, and the assassination of the latter April ;^, 1882, by Robert 
Ford. And there was enough of the spirit of squatter sovereignty left then 
in Missouri to drive the governor into political exile, while Kansas recovered 
her sanity by the close of the war. And that Missouri is rapidly getting 
there is evidenced by the fact that about four years ago Frank James was 
a candidate for doorkeeper in the Missouri legislature, and while some still 
believed him to be a "bigger man than old Grant," there were conserva- 
tives enough to prevent his election, because, as they said, "it would never 
do." 

The first raid of any consequence from Kansas into Missouri was on the 
20th of December, 1858, when John Brown went over into Vernon county, 
Missouri, and brought out eleven slaves. The governor of Missouri offered 
$3000 reward and President Buchanan added $250 for Brown. With this 
bunch of negroes Brown departed from Kansas through Iowa. The History 
of Vernon County, Missouri, 1887, pages 221, 222, says: "There were com- 
paratively few slaves in Vernon county during the Kansas troubles; but 
their owners were always uneasy, and it came to pass that the pro-slavery 
men the county over were nervous and seldom retired at night without see- 
ing that their revolvers and shotguns were fit for service. The abolitionists 
were no longer despised; they were feared and dreaded. The Jay hawkers 
were fond of good horses and would as soon shoot a pro-slavery owner as to 
take his horse. They began along about 1858 to raid and harrow the bor- 
der counties of Jackson, Cass, Bates and Vernon, but only one of the raids 
into this county was important— the John Brown raid of December, 1858." 

In the senate of the United States, James H. Lane, June 20, 1862, said: 
"When my heart ceases to beat, and not until then, will I permit any gen- 
tleman, here or elsewhere, to state that Kansas is to be compared to 
Missouri in the outrages she has committed. In 1855, 1856, 1857, 1858, the 
outrages were ail upon one side ; Kansas acted exclusively upon the de- 
fensive, and I defy that gentleman or any other gentleman to point to any 
body of Kansans who ever invaded the territory of Missouri or stuffed her 
ballot-boxes, or attempted to do so.^^ We have, in the discharge of our 

saloon. It had become the rendezvous for the Dories and others, who were known as border ruf- 
fians, spies, thieves and murderers. It was through them the Missourians gained all information 
concerning the condition of the free-state men At this particular time the country was full of 
such ruffians, who had come up here to muider our people and burn ourhomes. These men were 
most active and bold. They ordered free-state men to leave, under pam of death if they failed 
to comply. While our men were under arms in camp, these marauders went to the homes of the 
settlers, where there was no one but women and children; they were abusive and indecent. On 
one occasion they so frightened one woman who was quick with child that she gave premature 
birth to it and came near dying. These conditions were reported, and a council was called, 
the wliole matter discussed, and after a full investigation it was decided that ' Dutch Henry' 
and his whole gang should be put to death, as an example and warning to the many murderers 
who infested the territory at that time. It was believed their crimes merited it, and the safety 
of the free-state community demanded it. I do not say that John Brown's party was chosen ; 
probably the decision was anticipated. I do say we decided that it must be done. . . . Pro- 
slavery men who were not border ruffians, and there were a goodly number, were soon ready 
to aid in the protection of free-state men. They asked and were never denied protection by the 
latter. It was the great beginning of the glorious ei.ding in Kansas. I justified it then, so did 
Robinson and everybody else. I have had no reason to change my mind upon that subject since." 

Note 89. — Hon. Frederick P. Stanton, a Tennesseean, fifth territorial (acting) governor, in 
an address at the old settlers' meeting, Bismarck Grove, Lawrence, September 2, 1884 : 

"The astounding frauds perpetrated at Oxford, in Johnson county, October 5, 1857, and sev- 
eral precincts in McGree, soon became known. They were intended, and, indeed, would have 
been effectual, to give the control of the new territorial legislature to the pro -slavery party, 
which was also supreme in the Lecompton constitutional convention. It would be fatal, these 
men perceived, to let the territorial legislature, even in its expiring days, pass into the hands of 
the ppople, especially since the result would serve to show too plainly the insignificance of the 
support which they actually had in the popular vote. 

' ' The returns in the case of these election precincts were nothing less than flagrant forgeries. 



The First Two Years of Kansas. 25 

duty to the flag and the country, marched into Missouri by orders of the 
government to crush out rebellion, since the commencement of this strug- 
gle. Never before did Kansas invade Missouri. ... I do hope that the 
difficulties between Missouri and Kansas may sometime be settled, and kind 
feeling established, and 1 avail myself of this opportunity to say that I 
traversed the borders of Kansas and Missouri from north to south, before 
these troubles commenced, appealing to the citizens of Missouri and the 
citizens of Kansas to remain at home and at peace with each other. I made 
speeches to that effect along the entire border; but that counsel Missouri 

They contained thousands of names of persons not present at the election. They were not re- 
turns of votes illenally offered and received, but they were immense lists of fictitious names, 
fraudulently entered and falsely returned, as those of actual voters. . . ." 

[The poll-list of Oxford precinct, above referred to, is now in the archives department of the 
State Historical Society. There are 1628 names on it. all cast for the pro-slavery legislative and 
congressional ticket, except that of one person who had the nerve to vote for Marcus J. Parrott 
for Congress. The list is dated October 5, 1857. and is signed by James H. Nounnun, C. C. Catron, 
and Batt Jones, judges, and S. D. Barnett and G, O. Hand, clerks. By throwing out the.^e re- 
turns, Robert J. Walker, governor, and Frederick P. Stanton, secretary, gave control of the ter- 
ritorial legislature to the free-state party. — Secretary.] 

"General Cass assumed in his letter to me that the Lecompton constitution fairly submitted 
the slavery question to the people, and gave them an opportunity "to determine whether Kansas 
shall be a slave state or a free state, in the very manner contemplated by its organic law.' You 
know how far this was from the facts of the ca.se; but evidently i-eneral Cass expected me to 
employ the army for the purpose of maintaining order and fair play at Calhoun pro-slavery 
elections. How utterly inadequate would this have been to the demands of the occasion ! Im- 
agine a battery of artillery pursuing Jack Henderson to Delaware Crossing to prevent the for- 
gery committed there, or a company of dragoons fighting the notorious frauds at Oxford, 
Kickapoo, and elsewhere. ..." 

"The army of the nation was wholly incompetent to deal with these transactions, or m any 
way to prevent them, as I have already shown. The idea of meeting the perpetrators of these 
famous frauds with military force is supremely ludicrous. John Calhoun (president of the 
Lecompton constitutional convention) had a company of dragoons to protect him as he carried 
these forged returns, or their fraudulent results, out of this territory. With my own eyes I saw 
him escorted in this way from Lecompton. I do not mean to charge that General Cass or Presi- 
dent Buchanan intended this use of the army, but I do say that such was the perversion of its 
functions, in spite of the better purposes proclaimed in the instructions."— Hist. Coll., vol. 3, pp. 
345. 348, 350. 

This statement'of Secretary Stanton concerning the misuse of the army recalls the fact that 
six months or more before John Calhoun left John W. Geary, the third territorial governor, de- 
parted in the middle of the night because he was without protection. On the 9th of February. 
1857, Governor Geary made application to Gen. Percif er F. Smith, commanding the department at 
Fort Leavenworth, as follows : 

"There are certain persons present in Lecompton who are determined, if within the bounds 
of possibility, to bring about a breach of the peace. During the last few days a number of per- 
sons have been grossly insulted ; and to-day an insult has been offered to myself A person 
named Sherrard. who some days ago had been appointed a sheriff of Douglas county, which ap- 
pointment was strongly protested against by a respectable number of the citizens of the county^ 
and I had deferred commissioning htm. This, it appears, gave mortal offense to Sherrard. and 
he has made up his mind to assassinate me. This may lead to trouble. It must be prevented, 
and that by immediate action. I require, therefore, two additional companies of dragoons, to re- 
port to me with the least possible delay. / think this is absolutely necessary, and I trust you wiU 
immediately comply wUh my request." 

On the 11th, General Smith responded: 

"Insults or probable breaches of the peace do not authorize the employment of the troops. 

"Besides, all the forces here have just been designated by the secretary of war, and are 
under orders, for other service more distant; and even the companies near you will have to be re- 
called. They are sufficient to repress any breach of the peace, and I cannot move them until the 
weather improves. 

"But even they are to be employed to aid the civil authorities only in the contmgencies men- 
tioned in the laws above referred to. The garrisons to be left in the territory will be available if 
the President directs their employment." 

Governor Geary had refused to commission William J. Sherrard as sheriff of Douglas county. 
The pro-slavery legislature demanded a reason, and the governor responded that Sherrard had 
been engaged in several drunken brawls. Geary ignored an attempted assault by Sherrard. 
when the latter spit upon the governor. At another time he slapped the governor's private sec- 
retary. Several attempts were made to provoke a quarrel and assassinate Geary. On the afternoon 
of the 14th of February according to a call, the citizens of Lecompton held a meeting to expresa 
their views concerning the insult to Governor Geary. Sherrard interrupted the meeting and be- 
gan shooting. In the riot Sherrard was killed. Geary resigned on the 4th of March, to take 
effect on the 20th. His letter was deposited in the office very late at night, just as the mail 
closed, but its contents were discussed in the grog-shops of Lecompton the next morning before 
the Bovernor was out of bed. He left Lecompton on the 10th of March, 1857. 



26 The First Two Years of Kansas. 

disregarded, and if Kansas is even with Missouri it is because she has been 
true to her flag and true to her country."*'" 

James H. Lane, in command of the United States troops, on the 22d 
day of September, 1861, destroyed the town of Osceola, St. Clair county, 
Missouri. This is generally stated as the excuse for the Lawrence massacre 
of August 21, 1863. Lane went to Osceola on a legitimate errand of war- 
fare—to destroy certain supplies of the enemy— Sterling Price at this time 
having captured Colonel Mulligan at Lexington. Lane was fired on from 
ambush, and in returning the fire he killed one man. Lane's men helped 
women get their personal effects from their houses. Lane took the records 
from the court-house before applying the torch, and returned them at the 
close of the war. Lawrence had been destroyed or besieged three times— in 
December. 1855, May 21, 1856. and September 15, 1856. This third time 
Governor Geary arrived with United States troops and succeeded with argu- 
ment to turn back to Missouri the 2700 invaders. Osawatomie was raided 
and robbed by 150 Missourians June 6, and destroyed by 500 Missourians 
August 30, 1856. The Marais des Cygnes massacre. May 18, 1858, was 
planned at Papinsville, Bates county, Missouri, and put into awful execution 
on the 19th.* Thus there were six raids from Missouri into Kansas before 
John Brown made the first raid from Kansas into Missouri, December, 
1858, when he brought out eleven negroes. The second raid from Kansas 
into Missouri was by James B. Abbott and party, July 23, 1859, who rescued 
John Doy from jail in St. Joseph. Lane's march upon Osceola was five 
months after the assault upon Fort Sumter, and prior to it there was the 
seizure of Camp Jackson, the Platte Bridge massacre, the battle of Wilson 
Creek, the seige of Lexington, and the battle of Morristown. 

There might have been a slight attempt by the settlers in the first two 
years at "seed time and harvest," but a few sentences only would be re- 
quired to tell it, and as for the building of homes, education, religion, and 
any attempt at well-ordered society, all were held in abeyance, while the 
sovereign squats of Missouri were using every means to force slavery upon 
the territory. August 28, 1856. a party of which R, J. Hinton was a mem- 
ber reached Topeka, coming overland through Iowa. In a diary of the trip 
kept by Hinton, now in possession of the Kansas State Historical Society, is 
this sentence: "Topeka contains about 100 houses, but presents the appear- 
ance that the territory everywhere shows, of industry idle, enterprise 
blocked, and capital lying wasted." 

It is not my purpose in this paper to justify John Brown or the sovereign 
squats of Missouri in anything that was done. What I repeat to you ap- 

NOTE 90.— Congressional Globe, 2d sess. 37th Congrress, p. 2838. 

•On the 18th of May. 1858, a mass meeting was called at Papinsville to incite an invasion of 
the territory and wipe out the free state settlers of Linn county. At midnight, when they reached 
the state line, either some conscience or a fear of James Montgomery seized the party, and all 
backed out but about thirty. This number followed Capt. Chas. A. Hamilton over the line on 
the morning of the 19th. They gathered up eleven citizens in Kansas, each without arms, the 
greater number, if not all of them, having never taken part in the differences between the free- 
state and pro-slavery parties. The prisoners were stood in line. Five were killed, and all the 
others but one desperately wounded. See Ed R. Smith's account, in volume 6 of the Kansas His- 
torical Collections, pages 365-370. Mr. Smith says, page 3S9: "Hamilton without further com- 
ment ordered his nien to form in front of their victims on the side of the ravine and a little above 
them. Old man Hairgrove, seeing the preparations for their murder, without a tremor in his 
voice, said, 'Men, if you are going to shoot us, take good aim.' Hamilton at this gave the order 
to ' Make ready, take aim fire! ' ' Fort Scott' [W. B.] Brockett. at this, wheeled his horseout of 
the line and with an oath declared he 'would shoot them in a fight, but. by God! I'll have nothing 
to do with such an act as this." It was with difficulty that Hamilton brought his gang again into 
line, then gave the order to fire, firing the first shot himself. The entire eleven men in that line 
went down before the deadly fire of their murderers." [See, also, Tomlinson's "Kansas in 1858." 
chap. 5, p. 61.] 



The First Two Years of Kansas. 27 

peared in public print hundreds of times in all parts of the United States, 
and while some of it sounds unreasonable, so much of it actually happened 
as to render the most absurd of it very plausible. At this late day, under 
the political and material wonders we enjoy, we are all charitable enough to 
excuse the individuals and cover all with the mantle so often asserted by the 
free-soiler, "the barbarism of slavery," which then infected all things 

Charles Robinson, the great free-soil leader, said in a letter to James Han- 
way, February 5, 1878: "I never had much doubt that Captain Brown was 
the author of the blow at Pottawatomie, for the reason that he was the only 
man who comprehended the situation and saw the absolute necessity of some 
such blow, and had the nerve to strike it." Verily, there had to be a blow 
struck. 

But let me go a few days over the limit of the two years to further illus- 
trate the spirit which then prevailed. Upon the anniversary of the Palmetto 
Rifles, June 28, 1856, celebrated at Atchison with a parade and banquet, 
were other toasts. "At the head of the table," says one account, "hung 
the blood-red flag, with the lone star and the motto of 'Southern Rights' on 
the one side and 'South Carolina' on the other. The same flag that first 
floated on the rifle-pits of ihe abolitionists at Lawrence, and on the hotel of 
the same place, in triumph, now hung over the heads of the noble soldiers 
who bore it so bravely through that exciting war." (This flag, captured by 
the free-state men at Slough creek, in September, 1856, is now among the 
relics of the Kansas State Historical Society.) Among the toasts were the 
following applying to Kansas: "Kansas— our chosen home— stand by her. 
Yes! sons of the South, make her a slave state, or die in the attempt!" 
"Missouri— our ally— nobly has she stood by her younger sister. All hail to 
the gallant 'border rufl[ians.' We owe them one." "The city of Atchison— 
may she before the close of the year '57 be the capital of a southern repub- 
lic. " "The Palmetto flag— we brought it here in honor, let us return it the 
same." "The distribution of the public lands— one hundred and sixty acres 
to every pro-slavery settler, and to every abolitionist six feet by two."*' 

But July 4 following they went one better in Grahamville, S. C: 
"Kansas— already stained with the blood of Southern martyrs in the cause 
of justice and our most sacred rights. May her streams become rivers of 
blood and her forests charnel houses before her soil shall be contaminated 
and her atmosphere polluted by the free-soil partisans of the North." ^^ 

Is it any wonder pandemonium was established on the border? 

The Missouri idea of squatter sovereignty seems to have been generally 
accepted. Listen to the Charleston Courier about June, 1856: "Let the 
names therefore be published daily, that we may see who are lukewarm in 
this vital issue— then we may see who are the people in this community who 
require to be watched. To secure this end we will add, as a suggestion, 
that the finance committee of the Kansas Association be also a committee 
of assessment, and that each individual be informed of this amount before 
his subscription be taken. We also suggest that the Kansas Association ap- 
point a large vigilance committee, whose consultations shall be secret, and 
who shall take in charge the conduct of delinquents and adopt such measures 
in reference to them as the interests of the community demand."" 



Note 91.— Webb's Scrap-book. vol. 15. p. 73. 
Note 92.— Webb's Scrap-book. vol. 14, p. 228. 
Note 93.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 14. p. 220. 



28 The First Two Years of Kansas. 

It has been charged that John Brown was crazy. I have two extracts 
made from speeches of David R. Atchison, and also two extracts from a 
speech by Stringfellow, in defense of slavery, that I had intended placing 
alongside of some of John Brown's talk about the same time, to illustrate 
the question as to who was the craziest; but the quotations throughout this 
paper are sufficient to show that there was something radically wrong, men- 
tally or morally, with the Atchisons and the Stringfellows. In the light of to- 
day, there was then a great deal of lunacy spread over western Missouri. And 
under the teachings of the fathers, as I have quoted them to you, inspired by a 
United Statessenator and acting Vice-president of the United States, and an 
ex-attorney-general of Missouri, how could it be otherwise than that western 
Missouri would be stocked with such citizens and patriots as Bill Anderson, 
Up Hayes, Arch Clements, the James boys, the Youngers, George Todd, 
Dick Yeager, and the later crop of train and bank robbers, such as Dick Lid- 
dil. Jim Cummings. Wood Hite, Bill McDaniels. and the scores of others who 
terrorized the entire West fr^m 1866 until 1882 Surely it was insanity to 
remove all restraint from such fellows, while at the same time urging them 
to shoot, hang, drown and tar-and feather their fellowmen. Thank God 
such civilization did not prevail. 

I will say, however, that by the spring of 1856 the people were warming 
up in the fight for statehood. Five years later— in 1861 — when the invent- 
ors of squatter sovereignty abandoned the United States senate for com- 
missions in the Confederate army, Kansas managed to squeeze in. During 
the five years following the end of my story the seat of war was transferred 
from the Missouri river to central Kansas, and then to southeastern Kan- 
sas. Many people have held that it was the emigration of 1857 that saved 
Kansas to freedom, but after the recital I have made it looks as though the 
bracing up following the blow struck at Pottawatomie, at Black Jack, 
Washington creek. Fort Titu^, Osawatomie and Hickory Point, Bull creek, 
and the two skirmishes at Franklin turned the tide. It is further apparent 
that the term "sovereign squat," as used to-day, will not apply to the 
bona fide free-soil settlers of Kansas, but solely to a band of non-resident 
slavery propagandists who were determined to force their institutions upon 
the new state. 

After seven years of bloody conflict Kansas became a state by default- 
that is, those opposed to her seceded, thus placing her friends in the ma- 
jority in the United States senate. She had 107,206 people, and in the Pike's 
Peak country there were 34,342. Five years of raiding and counter-raiding 
followed, when there was no growth or improvement. The only method of 
transportation was the stage, and the ox or mule tl-ains— not a mile of rail- 
road for six years after statehood— while Oklahoma becomes a state with 
5143 miles of railroad, just about half of what Kansas has today, and Pull- 
mans running everywhere. In 1900 Oklahoma and Indian Territory had a 
population of 790,291, estimated to day at 1,500,000.9^ In the state of Okla- 
homa there are twenty-four towns of over 3000 population, eight of them 
running over 10,000, with water-works, electric lights, street-railways, and 

Note 94.— September 15. 1907, the federal census bureau made a count of Oklahoma and In- 
dian Territory. With four districts unreported, the population has reached a total of 1,408.732. 
an increase of seventy-eight per cent, over 1900. The fierures show that Oklahoma, with two dis- 
tricts lacking, has a population of 718,76.5. and Indian Territory, with two districts missing, has 
689.937. This report shows that the twin territories are g-rowing with nearly equal pace, pfiaking 
a wi'll-balanced population in the new commonwealth of Oklahoma. The aggregate population 
is larger than any territory had at the time of its admission to the Union. 



The First Tivo Years of Kansas. 29 

modern buildings; now recall the straggling dugouts and board and log shan- 
ties composing the original towns of Kansas. In Kansas, in her first two 
years, the Massachusetts abolitionist and the Pennsylvania democrat were 
proscribed, a person's pronunciation sometimes being a test of citizenship, 
while in Oklahoma the Texan, the Kansan, and the Arkansan, the negro 
and the Indian, will enjoy squatter sovereignty in its real sense and vote 
unquestioned in the organization of the state. Only recently it was stated 
in the daily telegraphic dispatches that in the new state of Oklahoma the 
Pawnee Indians had entertained their old enemies, the Sioux, for several 
weeks with a green-corn dance and feasting. Buffalo and pony races were 
also indulged in, and many ponies and blankets were given the Sioux visit- 
ors by the Pawnees, and to add humor to the progress made, it was also 
stated that the agent of the Pawnees made a trip to the scene of the festivi- 
ties and warned the Indians that it would be a crime to give away ponies 
and blankets that had been mortgaged. 

How much the world owes to Kansas can never be computed. Since the 
days of Abraham, the first great pioneer, no people ever met more serious 
responsibilities, or made a more startling and lasting impression in the world's 
progress, than the pioneers of Kansas. And, verily, Kansas is an heir to 
the blessings promised Abraham: "I will bless thee, and make thy name 
great; and thou shalt be a blessing." 

In conclusion permit me to say that I verily believe that the Squatters' 
Claim Association, the Platte City Regulators and the Platte County Defen- 
sive Association were the sole progenitors— there were no ancestors behind 
them— of the Missouri bushwacker, the Kansas raider, and those who stole 
in the name of liberty, the Missouri train and bank robbers, and a host of 
reckless and lawless men incited hither, for whom no principle or element 
ciuld be held responsible, and that the Quantrill reunions are the last wrig- 
glings of the dying snake's tail. It was better for Kansas to be the victim 
than the persecutor— she recovered that much sooner. Her leading raider 
was pursued and shot like a mad dog on the banks of the Marais des Cygnes 
by Kansas troops, the second most conspicuous was dishonorably discharged 
from the federal service, and after the close of the war a few straggling 
horse-thieves were hung, and a well-ordered community established. 

I once asked a man who was notorious on the border during the war, and 
prominent afterward as a business man and a good citizen, to write a story 
of his experiences for the Kansas State Historical Society, and his response 
was, "I have two as good boys as man ever had in this world, and I do not 
want them to know any more about their father than is necessary." 
Nmety per cent, of the population of Kansas to-day have never heard of a 
Kansas raider— those so known were ashamed of it and repudiated it upon 
the coming of peace— and there never was a minute when a body of raiders 
could find a quarter-section in Kansas on which they would be permitted to 
hold a reunion. No descendant of a raider has ever posed in vaudeville on 
his father's reputation for infamy. ^^ And, thank God, there are no Kansas 

NoTK 95.— The writer was at Kinsley. September 3. 1907. where he made an address upon the 
occasion of the unveiling of a Santa Fe trail-marker, it was in the afternoon, and he had a de- 
lightful audience. The business men closed their stores, a^d about 150 school children partici- 
pated. Jesse James was there also with a tent-show, and the night before presented on the 
stage the deeds of his father which had induced a reward of $10,000 for him dead or alive. One 
demonstration honored all that was splendid in manhood, and the other all that was infamous. 



30 The First Two Years of Kansas. 

raider contributions to literature selling on the railroad-trains. And when 
the last Quantrill reunion is held the obliteration will be c< mplete— there 
will be no more reminders of the barbarism of slavery, and Missouri and 
Kansas, united, will be the choicest piece of God's green earth in sentiment 
and right living, as it has always been in all that nature gives to the com- 
fort and profit of mankind. 



